m, or from the spinous processes of the patawa, pointed as
sharp as a needle. The other end is burned hard, and round it is wound
a little conical tuft of tree-cotton, the silky covering of the bomba,
so as exactly to fill up the bore of the tube. They are carried in a
quiver, which holds some hundreds. It is in shape somewhat like a
backgammon dice-box, formed of basketwork, and covered with a piece of
the skin of the tapir. To it is attached a bunch of silk-grass, a small
piece of bone for scratching the point of the arrows, and a basket for
holding wild honey secured round the blunt end. The points of the
arrows are tipped with the deadly wourali or urali poison.

Another kind of gravatana is made of two separate pieces of wood, each
scooped out so as to form one half of the tube. The two halves are then
secured together, by binding round them spirally long fiat strips of the
jacitira, or wood of the climbing palm-tree, the whole being afterwards
smeared over with the black wax of the melipona bee. The tube tapers
towards the muzzle, and a cup-shaped mouthpiece is fitted in the broad
end. It is so heavy that only a strong man, accustomed to its use, can
employ it.

The boys learn to shoot with a smaller and lighter instrument. The
tools used are made of the incisor teeth of the paca and cavy. A light
arrow is put in at the inner end, and when the ball of silk-cotton
secured to the shafts fits tightly, it can be propelled with such force
by the breath that it makes a noise almost as loud as a pop-gun when
flying from the muzzle. An expert Indian can propel arrows so as to
kill at a distance of fifty or sixty yards. It is more useful in the
forest than a gun, for the report of firearms alarms the birds or
monkeys, while the silent poisoned dart brings them down one by one,
until the sportsman has a heap of slain by his side.

WOURALI POISON.

The wourali poison is made chiefly by the natives of the northern part
of the Amazonian valley. It is looked upon as an important and somewhat
mysterious operation. Waterton and Schombergh describe it. The Indian,
when preparing to concoct this deadly compound, goes into the wilds
where grows a vine--the strychnos toxifera. After this he collects a
number of bundles, and then takes up a root with an especially bitter
taste. After this he searches for two bulbous plants, which contain a
green and glutinous juice; and lastly, collects two species of ants--one
ve