, and of Euphorbiaceae, are also
taken. Some modern travellers, contrary to the testimony of the oldest
writers on Peru, have asserted that no animal substance is employed in
the poison for arrows. I am, however, enabled to state, on the authority
of an Indian who had himself often made the poison, that not only the
black and very poisonous emmet (_Cryptacereo atrato affin_), but also
the teeth of the formidable serpent, known to the Indians by the name of
Miuamaru or Jergon (_Lachesis picta_, Tsch.), are used for that purpose.

The wound of the poisoned arrow is fatal and rapid. Men and large
mammalia die in about four or five minutes after receiving the wound;
the smaller mammiferous animals and birds, in two minutes. The blow-reed
sends these deadly arrows with great certainty to the distance of
thirty-two or thirty-six paces. Hunting with the blow-reed must be long
practised in order to acquire dexterity in its use, and great caution is
requisite to avoid being self-wounded by the small sharp arrows. An
example came to my knowledge in the case of an Indian who let an arrow
fall unobserved from his quiver; he trod upon it, and it penetrated the
sole of his foot; in a very short time he was a corpse.

The club called _Matusino_ is four or five feet long, and is encircled
in a spiral form at the thick end, by a row of deer's horns. A single
long horn is fastened in the centre, the chief use of which is to
stick it in the earth when the club is rested. Only a few races of
upper and lower Ucayali and the Sensis use this formidable weapon,
which is very inconvenient and obstructive in passing through thick
forests. The _macana_, or wooden sword, is made of strong _chunta_.
The color of this wood is a deep blackish brown; it is very hard and
heavy, and is always used for implements which require great
durability and strength. The macana is about four feet long, one inch
thick, and from five to six inches broad; towards the hilt end the
breadth is about three inches, and it is rounded. It is so well cut
and polished, that a sabre scarcely excels it in sharpness. The weapon
is so heavy that it requires both hands to wield it.

There are not only offensive, but also defensive, weapons. One of the
latter is the _viche_, a very simple shield, one and a half or two feet
in diameter. It consists of a strong frame of twisted creeping plants,
over which the skin of a deer or tapir is stretched and fastened with
twine. On the insi