THE ZARABATANA, OR BLOW-GUN OF THE MACOUSHIES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 771, 10 December 1886, Page 9

THE ZARABATANA, OR BLOW-GUN OF THE MACOUSHIES.

Scientific American. It has been said that the boomerang is the •most jemarkable result of savage ingenuity > and skill in the making of a missile weapon ; hut it seems to me that even that singular instrument must yield first place to tlio zarabatana, or blow gun of the Macoushie Indians of Guiana. The;- zarabatana and its several -accompaniments make -a series absolutely unique, in that they so clearly portray the efforts successfully made to overcome a number of seemingly insurmountable ot- ■ stacies. Being at once the wettest arid warmest portion of the glob», Guiana is characterised by a vegetation so rank as to • defy the utmost effort even of civilised man to control it. Ordinariy: missiles are of little use in its tangled • forests, for scarcely an animal fit for food lives elsewhere than in the branches of lofty trees. Even the. large . animals, na the jaguar and puma, lurk in the trees, and are not only -wounded with difficulty, but if wounded --cam easily drag themselves aw9y to some leafy covert, there to die - or, perhaps, recover undiscovered. The missile needed is one that -is s'lent and instantly fatal, no matter what the animal or. - where it is struck. A vital part can seldom be choseri by the marksman, owing to the . opportunities for biding afforded by the dense i foliage, consequently the missile must be fatal ■ though it only puncture the* flesh. This, of .-course, involves the use-of poison, but of such a poison as will be harmless when eaten. The > blow-gun itself is a tube about three-quarters .-of an inch in diameter and eleven feet long. It weighs a trifle more than a pound and a thalf. The tube is made -up of . two tubes, one within the other, the object of ■ the inner tube - being to supply as nearly perfect a cylinder as -may be, and that is found in a comparatively frail aquatic reed called onrah. The outer itube is made of the stem of a young palm tree ■of the genus Iriartea, and kaowuas samourah. The only purpose of the outer tube is to act : -as guard for the inner tube, and wonderful skill is displayed in the adjustment of these, one within the other. The month end of the outer tube is bound with thread made from the agave, and the other end is secured by means of a seed of the aquiro palm, through vwhich a hole is bored. The Beed acts also as a back sight. The fore sight is made of the 'two upper incisor teeth of the acouchi. The arrows are made from the midribs of the ■leaves of the coucourite palm, and are peculiar for their hardness and weight. They ure not larger than a knitting needle, and sre bound at the base with a tuft of cotton procured '■from the tree Bombax Ceiba. This makes the t-missile fit the gun snugly, a prime necessityfor-. correctness and, strength of flight. The ranow is pointed by drawing it between the teeth of the pirai fish, one half of whose Tower jaw forms a necessry part of the Slacoushie’s outfit. The weapon is now complete, but would be almost harmless without the famous poison, the manufacture of which is held a secret among the conjurors of the Macoushie Indians. The chief characteristic of this wourali poison is its instantaneous action. It does not bill instantly, but it seems to paralyse first, and then cause death slowly and painlessly. The consequence is that a creature smitten by it is unable to move even an inch, but falls to the ground from the very, epofconvwhich it was struck. The composition of the poison as given by Waterfon is peculiar. Some of the ingredients he could not learn, but the most important is wourali vine Btryohnos tnxifera). Two or three other plants are used, among them red pepper and hyarri, the latter belonging to the genus lonchocarpus, and being used to kill fish by throwing .into the water. Besides these vegetable ingredients, the fangs of two kinds of serpents are used, and also the bodies of two kinds of ants. The probabilities are, however, that the animal ingredients are unimportant. The materials are all boiled together over a slow fire .autill the poison in the form of a thick syrup is produced. Dampness is fatal to the poieon, so-that the utmost care is taken to keep it dry. The wourali is so precious that with it the Macoushie can purchase anything, and among all the neighboring tribes it is used as money. The arrows, after being sharpened and dipped in the p-.ison. would be ■dangerous if not carried with peculiar care, and the Macoushie., therefore, has contrived a way at once simple ..and-Eafe. The arrows .are woven in'o a sort of ribbon on two sets of parallel cords,, the pqints all directed one way. A wheel is then .fastened to the end of a shaft tied to the ends of,the cords, and the whole ribbon of about -five hundred arrows is rolled up, the poisoned tips being kept harmless by resting agaiDgt the wheel. The whole is then placed in a water-tight quiver, made of reed 3 lined with a delicately-woven matting and covered with kurumanni wax. The cover is made from the hide of the tapir or peccary. The whole outfit, of the Macoushie is so light that when he goes on an expedition he can literally take up his bed and accoutrements, and go about as untrammelled os any savage could wish. His hammock he folds around his body, clothing by day, bed by night .Quiver and cotton basket slung over the shoulder, and zarabatana in hand, he is ready for whatever may come.