ends were tightly bound round with a cord of silk grass; the butt being
further secured by a nut cut horizontally through the middle, with a
hole in the end forming a ring, which, should it strike the ground,
would prevent it from splitting. About two feet from the mouth-end he
fastened a couple of the teeth of the agouti to serve as sights.

Kallolo having finished his blowpipe hung it up carefully by one end, as
should it become in the slightest degree bent, it would be, he
explained, completely spoiled. He then commenced manufacturing arrows.
They were made out of the leaf of a species of palm-tree, hard, brittle,
and pointed as sharp as needles. Having burned the butt end, he
fastened round it some wild cotton of just sufficient thickness to fit
the hole of the tube. As soon as he had formed an arrow he put it into
the blowpipe, and aimed at an unfortunate parrot perched on a tree fifty
yards off. The parrot, uttering a cry, flew away, and the arrow fell to
the ground; but as no poison had as yet been used, the bird was little
the worse for its wound. The case would have been very different had
the arrow been dipped in the poison: the bird would have died in thirty
or forty seconds, Kallolo told me. He was well-satisfied with his
performance, and pronounced his blowpipe a certain killer.

He had now to manufacture the poison. He had already procured all the
ingredients, and three large bowls; but he confessed to the captain that
all his efforts would be in vain unless he could obtain a vessel in
which to boil it, as the wooden bowls would certainly not answer the
purpose. His object was to obtain the loan of the saucepan!

"Why, we shall all be poisoned if you use it," said the captain,
starting back with dismay; "you had better go without your blowpipe than
allow that to happen."

Kallolo assured him that the vessel would not in any way be injured; and
that should the white people even swallow a small portion of the poison,
they would not suffer.

"Ah, my friend, but I would rather not risk it," observed the captain.
"However, if you can undertake to clean the pot thoroughly after you
have used it, I will not hinder you, as I am well aware that you could
procure more food with your blowpipe than all of us together, with our
bows and arrows and fishing-lines."

Having obtained the loan of the pot, Kallolo immediately commenced
operations. He had, I should have said, formed a small hut at a little
dis