BLOWGUN or, as it is usually called, BLOWPIPE. This, with its poisoned dart, is a lethal weapon employed in South America, and in the Malay peninsula and archipelago. In each case it is used by savages of high ethnological status and mental de velopment, usually forest peoples, its efficacy depending largely upon the user not being seen.
The blowpipe is a wooden tube some seven feet long (bore about one-third of an inch across) the external diameter dimin.
ishing from about one inch at the mouth end to three-quarters at the nozzle. The tube is made of a light, rigid wood, found com monly throughout Borneo and Malaya. A piece being selected, free from knots, it is roughly shaped. This is bored with an iron rod, eight feet long, with a cutting edge at ont, end. The pole and the boring tool are placed upright, the pole being fixed in a vice of branches of trees, the rod passing through guides above the ground.
Two men do the drilling. One brings the chisel down repeatedly on to the centre of the pole, turning it slightly each time. The other moistens the wood with water, which he ladles into the hole. It takes from eight to ten hours to bore through the pole, and although the chisel does fine work, the natives polish the inside with a rattan. When satisfied with this, they whittle away the outside to the required size and smoothness.
When a native of Borneo uses the blowpipe, he lashes a short spear to the end, so that he may ward off the attacks of infuriated victims. The weight of this spear would distort the tube, and make it difficult to take true aim. Accordingly, he slightly curves the thin end, so that the weight of the spear and lashings compensates and bends the tube perfectly straight. The mouth end of the pole is fixed somewhere in the dwelling, and is supported by a loop, weights being attached to the other end. The curvature is judged sufficient when, on looking through the tube, only two-thirds of the bore can be seen through. The blowpipe is then warmed, to make it "set." When this is done, a little, round piece of wood is lashed on to the upper side of the narrow end to act as a sight.
The darts used are made of splinters of palm-wood eight to ten inches long, sharpened at one end, the whole length being whittled down until the diameter is about that of a steel knitting-needle. The butt is a cone made of soft pith about half an inch long, being, at its base, exactly the size of the bore of the pipe. At the pointed end the shaft is partially cut through at intervals of about a quarter of an inch, in order that it may break easily and ensure the lethal portion remaining in the wound made. Where the game is large the shaft of the dart is split at the point and a sharp tri angular metal point, cut from an oil tin, inserted and secured by a wooden peg.
As to the poison used, Dr. C. G. Seligmann, in a note published by the Journal of the Anthropological Institute (19oz) says that it is obtained either from Strychnos or Antiaris. The Bornean tribes use the inspissated juice of the Ipoh or upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria), it is yellow-white in colour, becoming buff on exposure to air, and of a very bitter taste. It is a glucoside which acts on the heart-muscles and central nervous system. The juice is ob tained by making incisions in the bark, and collecting the sap. It is dried slowly over a fire, until almost black, and viscous, like sealing wax, and when wanted for use is softened in warm water and kneaded. The darts are smeared with the poison while it is moist, and then dried by the fire. A little pith-cone is afterwards fixed on the dart. The poison usually retains its power for two months from the time it is taken from the tree. Neither the weapons nor the darts vary much in respect to local conditions.
See C. Hose and W. McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (1912) ; Handbook to the Ethnographical Collection of the British Museum (2nd ed. 1925). (C. H.)