nd the women a petticoat reaching
from the waist to the knees. These garments are made of cotton obtained
from the uncultivated tree _Bombax_, and their color is white, blue, or
red. The custom of boring the ears, the nose, and the under lip, for the
insertion of some ornament, is much practised, particularly by the
Panos, Shipeos, and Pirras. They paint their bodies, but not exactly in
the tattoo manner; they confine themselves to single stripes. The Sensis
women draw two stripes from the shoulder, over each breast, down to the
pit of the stomach; the Pirras women paint a band in the form of a
girdle round the waist, and they have three of a darker color round each
thigh. These stripes, when once laid on, can never be removed by
washing. They are made with the unripe fruit of one of the Rubiacaceae.
Some tribes paint the face only; others, on the contrary, do not touch
that part; but bedaub with colors their arms, feet, and breasts.

In hunting, bows and arrows are the principal weapons used by the
Indians. In war they use, besides bows and arrows, clubs and a kind of
sword made of wood. The arrows are reeds, five or six feet long, and
of the thickness of a finger. The point is of very hard wood, and is
strongly barbed by notches and with sharp fish teeth about three
inches long. To the other extremity of the arrow colored feathers are
always affixed.

Among many Indians, particularly in the western and northern districts
of the Pampa del Sacramento, the _Pocuna_ is a weapon much used in
hunting. It is made of a long reed, and measures eight or ten, or even
more, feet. At one end are fixed two teeth of a javali, or white-lipped
peccary (_Dicotyles labiatus_), on which the reed is rested when taking
aim. The arrows, which are only one and a half or two inches long, are
made of the thick part of a strong cactus stem. In general their small
arrows are poisoned, for otherwise the wound would be too inconsiderable
to kill even a little bird. The poison for arrows differs almost with
every tribe, and very mysterious ceremonies are observed at its
preparation. On this account the art of preparing it, and the
ingredients employed, are only very partially known to Europeans. Their
elements are obtained from several plants not yet defined botanically,
among which the _Apihuasca_ and poison capsicum are much resorted to.
Infusions of the leaves of a very strong kind of tobacco, and of the
Sanano (_Tabernaemontana Sanano_, R. P.)