EXPEDITION TO S U R 1 N A IM. 



they encumber the firfb, and being buoyant bring the 

 latter to the furface, till both are taken. Thefe arrows, 

 like all others, are ftuck with feathers fix or feven inches 

 long. Some arrows have blunted heads inftead of points, 

 about the lize of a large chefnut, like what our anceftors 

 called bolt-S with thefe they do not kill, but ftun the 

 macaws, parrots, and fmall monkeys, fo that they can 

 take them with their hands, foon after which they reco- 

 ver, and are fent alive to Paramaribo. Some of the ar- 

 rows for killing fifli have the appearance of a trident, 

 three and fometimes five barbed flicks being fixed to the 

 reed inftead of one, which enables them to fiioot fifli 

 even at random. A few of the above arrows are fre- 

 quently dipped in the woorara poifon*, which is in- 

 ftantaneoufiy fatal : but when intent on certain de- 

 ftru(5lion, this people make ufe of another kind of 

 arrow that is not above ten or twelve inches long, 

 extremely thin, and made of the hard fplinters of the 

 palm - tree bark, having, inftead of feathers, one end 

 wound round with a tuft of raw cotton, fo as to fill up a 

 hollow tube made of reed near fix feet in length, through 

 which they blow them with their breath. Thefe little 

 implements of death will carry to the diftance of forty 

 paces, and with fo much certainty, that the intended 



* The bark of a tree fo called, mixed refer the reader to Dr. Bancroft, and the 



with others ; but for a very particular de- repeated experiments which that gentle- 



fcription of this acute poifon, viz. of its man has made to afcertain its inftant fa- 



compofition, and of its dire efFeds, I tality. 



Vol. I. 3 E 2 vi6tims 



