[141] These blow-pipes appear to be similar to those still in use among the Orang Kuantan Malays, of which a specimen is to be seen in the British Museum. It is made of two grooved halves of a hard wood, bound with cane, and coated with “a gutta-like substance” (Skeat, Man, 1902, No. 108). This is, however, a shorter instrument than the Witoto or Boro use, the measurements given being only 5 feet 2 inches for total length, with an interior diameter of seven-sixteenths of an inch at the mouthpiece and three-eighths of an inch at the muzzle-end. The blow-pipe is found among all Malayan tribes. For distribution in the South Seas, cf. map in Skeat and Blagden’s Pagan Tribes, i. 254.
[142] Deniker states that the Miranha hunt “like the ancient Quechuas by means of nets stretched out between the trees, into which they drive, with cries and gestures, the terrified animals” (Deniker, p. 561). I have never seen or heard of such nets among them.
[143] Orton, pp. 169-70.
[144] Cf. method of poisoning adopted by natives of Torres Straits (Torres Straits, iv. 159).
[145] Jacquinia armillaris. According to Spix and Martius babasco poison is made from the leaves and blossom of the Budleya connata (Spix and von Martius, Reise, 1820, p. 98).
[146] Simson, p. 131.
[147] Paullinia pinnata (Sapindaceae) (Spruce, ii. 523; Bates, ii. 82-3). Spruce also mentions cunambi, poison obtained from the roots of Ichthyothera cunambi (Spruce, ii. 520); and Yuca-raton, the root of Gliricidiae sp. (Spruce, ii. 455).
[148] The frame is made of timbo-titica, Heteropsis sp. (Spruce, ii. 523).
[149] Such very hard wood is procurable, and so abundant is it that even tribes like the Botucudo, who could use shell, stone, or metal, use wood in preference, and many tribes prefer their lithic axes to metal ones. The inference is obvious—these peoples are not, and never have been, metal-using races, and poisoned wood suits sufficiently their purposes for arrow-heads.
[150] Oakenfull, p. 30.