284 



INDIAN AND OTHER 



which they make the masato, their only comfort and drink. 

 They seldom taste water, which, in consequence of the heat, 

 and of the innumerable morasses, is of a very noxious quality. 

 To cultivate the yuca, they clear a small portion of the forest 

 with hatchets of stone, wrought with much patience *, and 

 having burned the felled wood, turn up the earth, that it may 

 dry and fall in pieces, with a kind of stick shaped like a sword. 

 They likewise cultivate cotton, the pods of which supply them 

 with the greater part of the materials they employ in the ma- 

 nufacture of the ustis and pampanillas. 



Their attention is, however, so little occupied by agricul- 

 ture and manufactures, that it may be asserted, that their 

 sole occupations are hunting, fishing, and war. For these 

 three purposes they employ the same instruments, consisting 

 of tubes, spears, clubs, chinganas-f, poniards, and darts 

 and arrows, made of the hardest woods, and having their 

 points imbued with a6live poisons derived from the vegetable 

 kingdom. For the fishes, they usually have recourse to the 

 tubes and arrows ; and for the quadrupeds, to the latter, 

 and to the darts, throwing them with the greatest dexte- 

 rity. For this reason they are not afraid, in their forests, to 



* Father Girbal brought from Manoa one of these hatchets, in shape perfe(Slly 

 jesembling ours, but which, instead of a handle, was provided with two ears, 

 ■with a channel to secure the extremity by the means of cords. The Indians 

 manufadture them with other stones, aided by the chambo, or small copper axe, and 

 then with water and patience proceed to sharpen them. 



f A particular kind of lance, the handle of which is made of chonta, a spe- 

 cies of ebony, and the point of a scorched reed, which inflifls a cruel 

 wound. 



- defy 



