238 
EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 
cleared land, and part of the ground was planted with 
Indian corn, water-melons, and sugar-cane. Beyond 
this field there was only a faint hunter's track, leading 
towards the untrodden interior. My companion told me 
he had never heard of there being any inhabitants in 
that direction (the south). We crossed the forest from 
this place to another smaller clearing, and then walked, 
on our road home, through about two miles of caapoeira 
of various ages, the sites of old plantations. The only 
fruits of our ramble were a few rare insects and a J apu 
(Cassicus cristatus), a handsome bird with chestnut and 
saffron-coloured plumage, which wanders through the 
tree-tops in large flocks. My little companion brought 
this down from a height which I calculated at thirty 
yards. The blowpipe, however, in the hands of an 
expert adult Indian, can be made to propel arrows so as 
to kill at a distance of fifty and sixty yards. The aim 
is most certain when the tube is held vertically, or 
nearly so. It is a far more useful weapon in the forest 
than a gun, for the report of a firearm alarms the whole 
flock of birds or monkeys feeding on a tree, whilst the 
silent poisoned dart brings the animals down one by 
one until the sportsman has a heap of slain by his side. 
None but the stealthy Indian can use it effectively. 
The poison, which must be fresh to kill speedily, is 
obtained only of the Indians who live beyond the cata- 
racts of the rivers flowing from the north, especially the 
Rio Negro and the Japura. Its principal ingredient is 
the wood of the Strychnos toxifera, a tree which does 
not grow in the humid forests of the river plains. A 
most graphic account of the Urari, and of an expedition 
