332 
Progressive Advance op Technique. 
913. My “trade” proved so tempting to the inhabitants of Nap pi and 
the surrounding villages, that 1 was able to send along with Tiedge to 
Pirara twelve Indians loaded up with cassava bread, yams, potatoes and 
huge pineapples. The first of these articles was particularly required for 
our journey to the sources of the Takutu, because it keeps in a palatable 
condition for years and is never attacked by worms or insects : a pheno- 
menon that is all the more extraordinary because, except for cassava 
bread, I have learnt of really no other destructible object whatever that 
is spared by them. The women, likewise here, generally asked only for 
beads, while the men who wanted axes, knives, powder, files and such- 
like, offered me their war implements, hunting kits, and feather orna- 
ments, amongst which the stately feather cloaks (Warara-raucui) stood 
conspicuous, with the result that my house soon resembled a rich ethno- 
logical museum. 
914. I have already noted that the technique always became more 
and more advanced in proportion as we penetrated further into the 
interior . ’■* More overwhelwing demonstrations of this fact were to be 
found here. Considering the absence of every tool for minimising labour, 
and that in the manufacture of their weapons, etc., they had been hitherto 
obliged to have recourse, generally speaking, to stone or bone knives, 
their arms and implements were nevertheless fabricated with a neatness 
and taste that would have put a European handicraftsman to shame. 
The weapons were generally made from the hard central part of the 
trunk of the giant Lecythis or Brosimum. But if one considers the 
trouble already entailed not only in the felling of such a tree by people 
amongst whom axes are still a rarity, but also in the working up of the 
heart-wood : if one bears in mind the cutting of it without saws and then 
its transformation into a war-club or a bow, one’s admiration for the 
patience of these people is increased all the more. I frequently saw sub- 
sequently how they took a piece of old iron or an old cutlass, broke 
notches in it and used it as a saw, a whole day being then required to 
cut but an inch deep into the timber, which was as hard as iron. To be 
sure, the Indian only works when he feels inclined, and spends perhaps 
several months and longer in the manufacture of a bow or of a club: 
time lias no value for him, and he gladly gives the labour of many a toil- 
some hour for a knife or for a file. Their weapons consist of bows and 
clubs (Taikeh). Each tribe has its peculiar shape of club although, 
according to its special requirements, the one tribe adopts the shape of 
^another'. Thus I found among the Macusis a form of war club that 
otherwise is peculiar to the Maiongkongs only. Starting at the lower 
extremity in a long sharp point, the club gradually broadens out more 
and more until it ends above in a blunt projection. The handle is more 
towards the middle. The sharp point is said to be for the purpose, when 
the enemy is downed, of sticking it into his ear and then driving it into 
his brain. For battle itself they take only seven poisoned arrows with 
them : when these have been shot the combatants engage in hand-to-hand 
fighting and the clubbing commences. To make the blow of a club more 
effective they often also smooth a piece of hard sandstone into the shape 
*See Section 802 and Subjoined Note. (Ed.) 
