The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1909-02-13
EXPERT WITH BOWS
WEAPONS OF Llssoo NATIVES
ON cHINA-BURMEsE BORDER.
Are Splendid Marksmen and Although
cowardIy Their Use Of Poisoned
Arrows Makes Them For
midable as Foes.

On the wild frontier between China
and British Burma is a barbarouf
tribe which has no civilized supervi
sion. George Forrest, an English
traveller, thus describes the ehiei
weapon Of these people:
III | had to suggest title for q
book on the upper salwin should
call 1t The Land of the Crossbow,
which is the characteristic weapon OF
the country and the Lissoo tribe.
Every Lissoo with any pretensions
to chic possesses at least two of these
weapons-one for everyday use in
hunting and the other for war. The
little children play with miniature
crossbows. The men never leave their
huts for any purpose whatever with
out their crossbows when they go to
sleep the 'nukung' is hung over their
heads, and when they die it is hung
over their graves.
The largest crossbows have a span
of fully five feet, and require a pull of
fully 35 pounds to string them. The
bow is made of species of wild null
berry of great toughness and fiexi-
bility; the stock, some four feet long
in the war bows, is usually of wild
plum wood; the string is of plated
hemp and the trigger Of bone
The arrow, Of 16 to is inches, is of
split bamboo, about four times the
thickness of an ordinary knitting nee
die, hardened and pointed; the actual
point is bare for quarter to one-third
OF an inch, then for fully an inch the
arrow is stripped to half its thickness,
and on that portion poison is placed
This poison is invariably decoc-
ton expressed from the tubers of a
species Of aconitum, which grows on
those ranges at an altitude of 5000 to
10000 feet The poison is mixed with
resin, or some vegetable gum, to the
consistency of putty, and is then
smeared on the notched point.
The feather is supplied by a strip
Of bamboo leaf folded into a triangular
form and tied in a notch at the end
Of the arrow, with the point Of the
angle outward.
The reduction in thickness Of the
arrow where the poison is placed
causes the point to break off in the
body of any one whom it strikes, and
as each carries enough poison to kill
horse a wound is invariably fatal.
Free and immediate incision is the
usual remedy when wounded on
limb or fieshy part of the body; but
at Cheng-ka the uncle of the Lao-wo
chief showed us a preparation which
resembled opium dross, and which he
said was an effective antidote.
With few exceptions the Lissoo
seemed to us to be arrant towards,
but the crossbow and poisoned arrow
Us certainly a most diabolicaI weapon.
An arrow from a war bow will pierce
a deal board an inch thick at 20 or
so yards. Some of the Tsekou natives
were so expert that they could hit a
mark four inches in diameter repeat
edly at 60 to so yards.
"As no one goes anywhere without
his crossbow and bearskin quiver full
of poisoned arrows, and as every vii
lage is at feud with every other vii.
lage, mutual suspicion is inevitable
In open fight the Lissoo are usual
~ careful to keep at respectful dis
tance from each other and behind OK
hide shields which protect the whole
body. But If battle is rare, murder
and sudden death by ambush in the
Jungle are compton,