236 
EXCUKSIONS AROUND EGA. 
Chap. IY. 
tana, or blowpipe. This instrument is used by all the 
Indian tribes on the Upper Amazons. It is generally 
nine or ten feet long, and is made of two separate 
lengths of wood, each scooped out so as to form one half 
of the tube. To do this with the necessary accuracy 
requires an enormous amount of patient labour, and con- 
siderable mechanical ability, the tools used being simply 
the incisor teeth of the Paca and Cutia. The two half 
tubes, when finished, are secured together by a very 
close and tight spirally-wound strapping, consisting of 
long flat strips of J acitara, or the wood of the climbing 
palm-tree; and the whole is smeared afterwards with 
Blow-pipe, quiver, and arrow. 
black wax, the production of a Melipona bee. The pipe 
tapers towards the muzzle, and a cup-shaped mouth- 
piece, made of wood, is fitted in the broad end. A full- 
sized Zarabatana is heavy, and can only be used by an 
adult Indian who has had great practice. The young 
lads learn to shoot with smaller and lighter tubes. 
When Mr. Wallace and I had lessons at Barra in the 
use of the blowpipe, of Julio, a Jmi Indian, then in the 
employ of Mr. Hauxwell, an English bird-collector, we 
found it very difficult to hold steadily the long tubes. 
The arrows are made from the hard rind of the leaf- 
stalks of certain palms, thin strips being cut, and 
