The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1881-08-13
The Sumpitan, or w.tube, Of Malaga,

length. The Dyak war dart is the short.
est, and is usually furnished with small
metal arrowhead. In this case the shaft
is of light wood. The longer darts, such
as those used in Sumatra, are made
from a harder and heavier wood, usual
ly the long spikes taken from the palms.
These are left thicker toward the point
than at the other end, so as to counter.
balance the weight Of the conical piece
Of piththereaflixed.' This piece Of ith,
the broadcast part of which is but very
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 necessarily
some escape of force. For this reason,
when very hard shots are desired, a
small pellet of cotton or other suitable
6brous material is put behind the dart.
The great secret in making the darts is to
insure that they balance exactly. e.,
one half must be exactly the sa,ne'weish t
as the other. Under any other. condi-
tons true shooting is impossible. In
Padrang, Sumatra, l was much aston
ished to meet q man using for very
small birds darts constructed out of CO.
coanut-tree leaves. He took a spike of
the leaf, and cut off a piece about five
inches long. The stalk Of this he de-
nuded Of all leaf except ope. piece an
inch and a hall long on one Side, the
result being an article having the shape
of quill.pen.. The inch and half
fragment of leaf that remained was
curled round to allow its admittance into
the blow. tube. When We remember
that it was green leaf, we can form an
idea of the force with which the darts
are propelled to kill. For my particular
amusement the sportsman, who's was
laden with a supply of at least 800 darts,
shotoneofthese palmleaf projectiies over
some water, and l calculated that the
range was well over eighty yards. The
initial velocity was so great that the dart
could not be seen for the first twenty
five yards. The greatest adopts with
the sumpitan, especially at the present
day, when its use is surely dying out,
are undoubtedly the Dyaks. From what
l have heard, and from what / knowEof
my own observation, Dyak would
shoot dart 100 yards to certainty
and l should not care to bet very much
against 200 yards being accomplished
BY picked men. This statement
may SAVIOR of the "traveler" or.
der, but I fancy most Bornean
travellers will agree with rne. The small
dart is, of course, not sufficient of itself
to take human life, but the Dyaks poison
their projcctiles in warfare, when a slight
wound anywhere is all that is necessary.
Mr.. Paul, who wassome years in Borneo
with Sir James Brooke, told me that he
once saw Dyak who put two darts into
a sumpitan, one behind the other, and
by some inexplicable means shot out the
front one first, and followed with the
other after an interval. This man was
doubtless sort Of DR.. Carver among
the Dyaks. Precision with the blow-tube
is, as with every other weapon, mere
matter of practice. In shooting small
birds out of trees for collecting purposes,
for which service l recommend the blow
tube, the range would never be very
great. A bird twenty feet high in
tree is pretty high, considering that it is
in the lower, full-leaved trees that the
birds congregste, in preference to the.
higher ones. At this distance little
practice will make it certainty that the
bird will be hit. II not killed outright,
the long dart will of itself be sufficiently
cumbersome to prevent the bird flying
very far. As a rule, the quarry is trans
fixed, when of course it is case. give
twenty feet because l always like to be
on the safe side in these matters, but l,
myself, would certainly undertake to hit
four times out of six at twice the hight. |
have frequently proved this by bring