siderable progress.

The Indians camped round us at night. One of them had broken his
blow-pipe, and was employed in taking it to pieces for the purpose of
mending it. I had thus an opportunity of seeing how it was made. It
was about ten feet long, and composed of two separate lengths of wood,
each of which was scooped out so as to form one-half of the tube. Their
tools appeared to be made of the teeth of some animal, which I
afterwards found were those of the paca. These two pieces thus hollowed
out are fastened together by winding round them long flat slips of the
climbing palm-tree called the jacitara. The tube is then covered over
with black bees'-wax. A mouth-piece made of wood is fastened to one
end, which is broader than the other. From this it tapers away towards
the muzzle. I was surprised to find how heavy the instrument was when I
came to try and shoot from one. It is called by a variety of names--by
the Spaniards, _zarabatana_; by some natives, the _samouran_; by others,
the _tarbucan_; by the Portuguese, the _gravatana_. The arrows are made
from thin strips of the hard rind of the leaf-stalks of palms, and are
scraped at the end till they become as sharp as needles. Round the
butt-end is wound a little mass from the silk-cotton tree, which exactly
fits into the bore of the blow-pipe. The quivers were very neatly
formed of the plaited strips of a plant growing wild, from which
arrow-root is made. The upper part consisted of a rim of the red wood
of the japura, highly polished; and it was secured over the shoulder by
a belt ornamented with coloured fringes and tassels of cotton. We
afterwards saw blow-pipes formed in a different way, two stems of small
palms being selected, of different sizes, the smaller exactly to fit
inside the larger. Thus any curve existing in the one is counteracted
by that of the other. The arrows are tipped with the far-famed wourali
poison, which quickly kills any animal they wound.

Next morning we returned to the tree, and worked away as before. Arthur
and I undertook to cut down some smaller trees, to serve as rollers on
which to drag the huge trunk to the side of the river, where it was to
be hollowed out. We had, however, to supply ourselves with food, and
two of our new friends prepared to go in search of game with their
blow-pipes. Arthur and I begged to accompany them; but they made signs
that we must not fire off our guns, as we should quickly put the gam