NATIVE BLOW-PIPES. 
ioS 
Lower Orinoco, that the capuchin and cacajao monkeys 
(Simia chiropotes, and Simia melanocephala) place them- 
selves in a circle, and, by striking the shell with a stone, 
succeed in openiug it, so as to take out the triangular nuts. 
This operation must, however, be impossible, on account 
of the extreme hardness and thickness of the pericarp. 
Monkeys may have been seen rolling along the fruit of 
the bertholletia, but though this fruit has a small hole 
closed by the upper extremity of the columella, nature has 
not furnished monkeys with the means of opeuing the 
ligneous pericarp, as it has of opening the covercle of the 
lecythis, called in the missions “ the covercle of the monkeys’ 
cocoa.”* According to the report of several Indians, only 
the smaller rodentia, particularly the cavies (the acuri and 
the lupti ) , by the structure of their teeth, and the inconceiv- 
able perseverance with which they pursue their destructive 
operations, succeed in perforating the fruit of the jwvia. 
As soon as the triangular nuts are spread on the ground, 
all the animals of the forest, the monkeys, the manaviris, 
the squirrels, the cavies, the parrots, and the macaws, hastily 
assemble to dispute the prey. They have all strength 
enough to break the ligneous tegument ot the seed; they 
get out the kernel, and carry it to the tops of the trees. 
“ It is their festival also,” said the Indians who had re. 
turned from the harvest ; and on hearing their complaints 
of the animals, one may perceive that they think themselves 
alone the lawful masters of the forest. 
One of the four canoes, which had taken the Indians to 
the gathering of the jttyias, was filled in great part with 
that species of reeds (carices), of which the blow-tubes are 
made. These reeds were from fifteen to seventeen feet 
lono- yet no trace of a knot for the insertion of leaves and 
branches was perceived. They were quite straight, smooth 
externally, and perfectly cylindrical. These carices come 
from the foot of the mountains of Yumariquin and G-uanaja, 
They are much sought after, even beyond the Orinoco, by 
the name of ‘ reeds of Esmeralda.’ A hunter preserves, the 
same blow-tube during his whole life, and boasts ot its 
lightness and precision, as we boast of the same qualities m 
* ‘ La tapa del coco de monos.” 
