Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-02-25
HUNTING WITH BLOW GUNS.
Savages Who Use These Queer Weapons
With Poisoned Arrows.

The blow pipes used by the sayages of
Guiana for shooting poisoned arrows are
very wonderful weapons indeed. The
climate of this equatorial region, being
both very hot and very moist, produces
a vegetation of astonishing luxuriance.
The forests are commonly ankle deep in
water fer mile after mile, and conse--
quently the animals found there mostly
inhabit the trees. Monkeys are exceed
ingly numerous. For killing these tree
dwelling creatures the blow gun is the
best possible instrument. 1t is made from
peculiar kind of reed, and although
eleven or twelve feet in length, its
weight is only pound and half. 1t is
provided, like rifle, with fore sight
and back sight, the latter being made
of the teeth of small beast called the
acouchi.
The natives are most careful respect
ing the straightness of their blow guns,
and never allow them to lean against
anything lest they should be warped.
The arrows employed are made from the
leaf ribs of a kind of palm, made to fit
the bore of the gun by wrapping of
wild cotton fastened with fibre of silk
grass. Great art is required to put on
the cotton properly. The arrow is about
ten inches long, no thicker than crow
quill, and at one end is brought to n
point as sharp as needle by scraping it
between the keen-edged, w-like teeth of
the pirai fish. One-h half of pirai
jaw is always suspended to the culver.
The vegetable poison used for cnven-
oming the arrows is called "curari' 1t
is extremely powerful and will kill aman
within q few minutes when introduced
into the circulation by an arrow point,
though it is harmless when swallowed.
1t is very difficult to procure the strong
est "curari" from the natives, who are
most unwilling to part with it. The ar
row heads are kept carefully separate
from the shafts as precaution against
accidents, the savages themselves being
very much afraid of the poisons which
they employ. The secret of preparing
the poison is handed down by the medi :
cine men from generation to generation,
and the common people are not per-
mitted to know it.
First must be sought the curari vine,
which is closely allied to the tree which
furnishes strychnine, and to the upon
tree, from which the Dyaks of Borneo
get the poison for their arrows. When
the poison maker has found the curari he
looks for two dubious plants, the stems
of which yield gIutinous juice. An
other vegetable ingredient is the bitter
root, commonly used by these savages in
| poisoning water for the purpose Of
catching fish. Tothe mixture composed
of these elements the medicine man adds
two kinds of venemous ants and the pois-
onous fangs of deadly species of snakes
The whole is allowed to simmer over a
fire, the snakes fangs and ants being
pounded and thrown into the pot. The
boiling is continued until the poison is
reduced to a thick brown syrup. Finally
a few arrows are dipped experimentlly in
the poison, and its effect is tried upon
some animal or bird If satisfactory the
poison is poured into spherical earthen-
ware pot in which it is kept carefully
covered over with leaves, to exclude air
and moisture. I Washington Star.