The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-22
SOME DEADLY WEAPONS,
TNGENEITY OF SAVAGES IN DE-
 VISING ARMS
or Offence and Defence-DRngerous Character of the sumpitan of Borneo Method Adopted by Various WHu Tribes to Poison Their Spears and ArrowE.

ArrOws.
 Tn such weapons as do not involve
 the use of explosives, savage races
 have from ancient days been very in-
 ventive. Ever since the time when the
 samoese twin divnities split a great
 rock in two for the purpose of fashion
 ing stone clubs for the giants of those
 days the Samoans have been well
 skilled in the art of making and using
 heavy clubs. Long before bayonets
 came into general use in European
 came into general use in European
 warfare the idea of a gun and spear in
 one was elaborated in the form of the
 Dyak's sumpitan which we shall pres
 ently describe. It is even probable
 that the sword was well developed as a
 weapon in England, the Polynesian
 savage had brought his sharks teeth
 blades to perfection. Considering,
 then, that the weapons of savagery are
 of no mean order, and compare well In
 ingenuity with similar instruments of
 offence and defence in the present day,
 they may have a fair claim to consider
 ation
 NAANSN
 deadly of all savage weapons, is the
 sumpitan of Borneo, mentioned above.
 It is extraordinary that the Dyaks,
 barbarous and uncultured as they are,
 should have anticipated the idea of our
 rifle and bayonet it is not known how
 many centuries before the secret of
 gunpowder was discovered. Their gun
 Is a blow pipe of hard, light wood,
 some eight to ten feet in length, and
 about an inch in diameter; and their
 bayonet Is a kind of broad, sharp,
 edged, and pointed spearhead. This Is
 bound to the head of the blowgu by
 means of strong rattan or brass wire,
 and 1t is so arranged that it does not interfere with the flight of the darts.
 This, at first glance, is a deadly weapon at close quarters In the hands of a dashing warrior like the Dyak; but 1t is even more effective at a dis tance, for the little arrows made from the spicules of the sago palm are tipped with the poison of the upas tree. The arrows are so small that they inflict only puncture like that of pin prick; but, by virtue of the poison, many man has died five minutes af- ter being hit. This fact coupled with the marvellous delicacy of construction and consequent accuracy of the sum- pitan in the hands of the experienced Dyak marksman, makes 1t most for midable weapon.
 In the attack led by Johnson in 1859 against the Dyaks of the interior, he lost upwards of thirty men under the fatal fire of these weapons, and not one of them showed any wound more dan gerous-looking than mere pin prick | of the skin. The advantage that this | weapon has even over the rifle is that | in the dense foliage a Dyak marksman | may lie concealed and prick off his ene- | my without betraying his whereabouts | either by the sound of a report, by | flash or smoke. Altogether it requires | a very intrepid soldier to face the s- lent and deadly sumpitan. Warfare by | poisoned missiles is nowhere SO perfect | as in Borneo, but various savage races do what they can in the art The Fans use small poisoned arrow, which they discharge with crow bow, but though the poison is very deadly. It Is neither so carefully made nor ca- of such accuracy of aim as the sun1pftan arrow of the Dyaks.
 Indeed, it is so blunt that it fre- quently hits without penetrating the skin. The savage tribes of Guiana also use. a poison known as wourall on their arrows, which are not only mutilated with the tail of the stinging ray, but have cunningly detachable points. The Maoris of New Zealand, and many Po- ynesian tribes, having no poison x,hjrh thew aoy for 1 adopt the next best thing, and tip their spears and darts with hard wood from he trunk of the ponga, or tree fern. he beauty of this wood, from the sav- lge warriors point of view, being that t is of highly ffritant nature, and ets up fostering in wounds very quick Next to blow guns, provided with y. h ,ayonets or otherwise, come those say ge weapons which are designed to ,ierce, saw, lacerate and inhict wounds 'lmost beyond healing. For these say- lge man is indebted to nature, who has ,laced within the mouth of the shark uch set of formidable incisors that he weapon maker could scarcely fail o notice and apply them in his art. The two jaws of a full-grown shark sually contain about three hundred eeth, large and small, so that the Pa ific islander, who can kill shark whenever he happens to want one, can ind ample material for swords and lubs of all sizes. The Kingsmill is- snder is particularly apt at the manu- acture of weapons edged with sharks l eeth.
 He is not content with the somewhat 1 lunt and heavy ideas of many Polyne- ian peoples, who swing great clubs and I epend upon the knockdoWn blow. He as a keen sense of the pleasure of in- icting pain on the foe and likes to put
 very fine point on the death dealing xcellence of his weapon: indeed, one light say, rather, a thousand fine oints; for it is his custom to serrate le cutting edges of swords, maces and pears with rows of murderous sharks aeth, each one of which is so sharp as , make the weapon dangerous even to andle for the purpose of examination. appears that some of the swords of le Kingsmill islanders are quite works art, one, of which the Rev J. G. Jood gives a description, having no ss than four blades on one handle le central blade and three auxiliary. Il each blade there aIe four distinct TVS of sharks teeth, making in all