, when we discovered on the opposite
side of a creek, about one hundred and fifty yards away, a wild hog
rooting for food. We were on a slight elevation ourselves and under
cover of the brush, while the hog was exposed to view on the next
knoll. Almost simultaneously my companions fitted arrows to their
bow-strings. Instead of shooting point blank, manipulating the bows
with their hands and arms, they placed their great and second toes
on the cords on the ground, and with their left arms gave the proper
tension and inclination to the bows which were at least eight feet
long. With a whirr the poisoned arrows shot forth and, while the
cords still twanged, sailed gracefully through the air, describing
a hyperbola, fell with a speed that made them almost invisible, and
plunged into the animal on each side of his neck a little back from
the base of the brain.

The hog dropped in his tracks, and I doubt if he could have lived
even though the arrows had not been poisoned. Tying his feet together
with plant-fibres we slung the body over a heavy pole and carried it
to the _maloca_. All the way the two fellows disputed as to who was
the owner of the hog, and from time to time they put the carcass on
the ground to gesticulate and argue. I thought they would come to
blows. When they appealed to me I declared that the arrows had sped
so rapidly that my eyes could not follow them and therefore could
not tell which arrow had found its mark first.

A few yards from the house my friends fell to arguing again, and a
crowd collected about them, cheering first the one then the other. My
suggestion that the game be divided was rejected as showing very
poor judgment. Finally, the dispute grew to such proportions that the
Chief sent a messenger to learn the cause of the trouble and report
it to him.

The emissary retired and the crowd immediately began to disperse and
the combatants quieted. The messenger soon returned saying that the
Great Chief would judge the case and ordered the men to enter the
_maloca_. With some difficulty the hog was dragged through the door
opening and all the inhabitants crawled in after. The Chief was decked
out in a new and splendid feather dress, his face had received a fresh
coat of paint (in fact, the shells of the _urucu_ plant with which he
coloured his face and body scarlet were still lying under his hammock),
and his nose was supplied with a new set of _mutum_ feathers. He was
sitting in his hammock whi