Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-13
The Sumpitan, or Blow-Tube, of Mala-
 va.
 From the London Fie1dl


 From the London Fieldl
 The projectiles used are darts, varying
 from five to eight or nine inches in lenoth The Dyak war dart is the shortest, and is us. uaIly furnished with small metal arrow I head. In this case the shaft is of light wood The longer darts, such as those used in Suma- tra, are made from a harder and heavier wood usually the long spikes taken from the palms
 These are left thicker toward the point than
 at the other end, so as to counterbalance the
 weight ot the conlcal piece of pith there af
 fixed This piece of pith, the broadest part
 Of which IS but little less than the bore of
 the blow-tube, is absolutely necessary for the
 forcible propulsion of the dart As it does
 not fit the tube precisely, there is necessariIv
 some escape of force. For this reason when
 very hard shots are desired a small pellet of
 cotton or other suitable fibrous materials is
 put behind the dart. The great secret in
 making the darts is to insure that they bal
 ance exactly, .. C., one-half must be exactly
 the same weight as the other. Under any
 other conditions true shooting is impossible In Padrang, Sumatra, I was much astonished to meet man using for very small birds darts constructed out of cocoanut tree leaves He took spike of the leaf, and cut of a piece about five inches long, The stalk of this he denuded of all leaf except one piece an men and half long on one side, the re- suit being an article having the shape of a quill pen. The inch and half fragment of leaf that remained was curled round to allow of its admittance into the blow tube. When we remember that it was green leaf, we can form an idea of the force with which tbe darts are propelled to kill. For my particu- lar amusement the sportsman who was laden with a supply of at least 300 darts, shot one of these palm leaf projectiles over some wa- ter, and calculated that the range was well over 80 yards. The initial velocity was so great that the dart could not be seen for the first % yards. The greatest adopts witk the sump1tan, especially at the present day, when It's use IS so surely dying out, are undoubteA ly the Dyaks. From what have heard. and A, from what know from my own observation. a Dyak would shoot dart hundred and fifty yards to certainty; and should not care to bet very much against POO yards being &C., complished by picked men. This statement may savor of the 'traveler'' order, but I fan cy most Bornean travellers will agree with me. The small dart is, of course, not suffi- ,lent of itself to take human life but the Dyaks poison their projectiles in warfare, when slight wound anywhere is all that is necessary. Mir. Paul, who was some years in borneo with Sir James Brooke, told me that le once saw Dyak who put two darts into 'umpItan, one behind the other, and by some nexpllcable means shot out the front one irst, and followed with the other after an in erval. This man Twas doubtless sort of Dr. Carver among the Dyaks. Precision with hO bAO"-euDe 1SJ dS WILL every other W6aDOn mere matter of practice. In shooting small birds out of trees for collecting purposes, for which service I recommended the use of the 'low-tube, the range would never be very great bird 20 feet high in tree is pretty high. onsidering that it is in the lower, full-leayed sees that the birds congregate, in prefer nee to the higher ones. At this distance title practice will make it a certainty that the ird will be hit. If not killed outright, the ong dart will of itself be sufficiently cumber ome to prevent the bird flying very far. As rule, the quarry is transfxed, when of curse it is case. give 20 feet because lways like to be on the safe side in these latters, but myself would certainly under ike to hit four times out of six at twice the eght. I have frequently proved this by ringing down tiny birds out of the betelnut alm. Your readers will notice that I speak height, and not distance" Shooting p into tree and shooting at an object upon le ground are two different matters when le projectile is a long dart, likely to be af- cted by the least wind But still, at 30 et small birds should not escape very often om horizontal shots For very tiny birds ay balls may be used but from the fact at they never can fit the barrel properly, ey are not so sure as the dart.