which they make the masato, their only comfort and drink. They seldom taste water, which, in consequence of the heat, and of the innumerable morasses, is of a very noxious quality. To cultivate the yuca, they clear a small portion of the forest with hatchets of stone, wrought with much patience[1], and having burned the felled wood, turn up the earth, that it may dry and fall in pieces, with a kind of stick shaped like a sword. They likewise cultivate cotton, the pods of which supply them with the greater part of the materials they employ in the manufacture of the ustis and pampanillas.
Their attention is, however, so little occupied by agriculture and manufactures, that it may be asserted, that their sole occupations are hunting, fishing, and war. For these three purposes they employ the same instruments, consisting of tubes, spears, clubs, chinganas[2], poniards, and darts and arrows, made of the hardest woods, and having their points imbued with active poisons derived from the vegetable kingdom. For the fishes, they usually have recourse to the tubes and arrows; and for the quadrupeds, to the latter, and to the darts, throwing them with the greatest dexterity. For this reason they are not afraid, in their forests, to
- ↑ Father Girbal brought from Manoa one of these hatchets, in shape perfectly resembling ours, but which, instead of a handle, was provided with two ears, with a channel to secure the extremity by the means of cords. The Indians manufacture them with other stones, aided by the chambo, or small copper axe, and then with water and patience proceed to sliarpen them.
- ↑ A particular kind of lance, the handle of which is made of chonta, a species of ebony, and the point of a scorched reed, which inflicts a cruel wound.
