the
instrument look neater, Guapo had procured the tough shining bark of a
creeping plant, which he wound spirally around the outside from the
mouthpiece to the muzzle; and then the gravatana was finished.

There was yet much to be done before it could be used. Arrows were to
be made, and a quiver in which to carry them, and poison to dip their
points in--for the arrows of the blow-gun do not kill by the wound they
inflict, but by the poison with which they are charged.

The next thing, then, to which Guapo turned his attention was the
manufacture of the arrows. These can be made of cane, reeds, and other
kinds of wood; but the best materials for the purpose are the long
spines of the patawa palm, of which I have already spoken. These spines
grow out from the lower part of the leaf-petioles, and, in young trees
and those much sheltered, remain upon the trunk, giving it a very shaggy
appearance. They are often three feet in length, about as thick as
large wire, rather flattish, and of a black colour. To make the arrows,
Guapo cut them to the length of fifteen or eighteen inches, and then
pointed them sharply at one end. About three inches from the points he
notched them all, so that they would break in the wound rather than drop
out again, in consequence of the struggles of the animal. About two or
three inches from the thick end of the arrow Guapo wrapped lightly
around the shaft some strands of the soft silky cotton, which he had
procured from the pods of the great "ceiba," or silk-cotton tree,
already mentioned. This he fastened on with a fibre of an aloe plant--
one of the _bromelias_; and the cotton, when thus secured, assumed a
conical or spindle shape, having its larger end toward the butt of the
arrow. When inserted into the gravatana, the swell of the cotton filled
the tube exactly,--not so tightly as to impede the passage of the arrow,
nor so loosely as to allow of "windage" when blown upon through the
mouthpiece.

The arrows were now ready, with the exception of the poison for their
tips; and this was the most important of all, for without it both
blow-gun and arrows would have been useless weapons, indeed. But Guapo
was just the man who knew how to make this poison, and that is more than
could be said of every Indian, for it is only the "piaches" (priests, or
"medicine-men") who understand the process. Nay, more, there are even
some tribes where not an individual knows how the arrow-poison is ma