. Bulletin. Ethnology. PetrulloI YARUROS OF VENEZUELA 205 is inserted into the reed shaft (fig. 19, «, /). The barb on the iron point is obviously more effective than on the bone point. For crocodiles the arrow point is al- ways of iron, barbed and detachable. Its length is considerably less than the other, measuring about 4 feet or less. A string about 30 feet long is attached to the point and wrapped tightly around the shaft. When the point strikes the animal the string becomes unwound and if the animal dives into the water the hunter can trace it by the shaft floating on the surface. He the
. Bulletin. Ethnology. PetrulloI YARUROS OF VENEZUELA 205 is inserted into the reed shaft (fig. 19, «, /). The barb on the iron point is obviously more effective than on the bone point. For crocodiles the arrow point is al- ways of iron, barbed and detachable. Its length is considerably less than the other, measuring about 4 feet or less. A string about 30 feet long is attached to the point and wrapped tightly around the shaft. When the point strikes the animal the string becomes unwound and if the animal dives into the water the hunter can trace it by the shaft floating on the surface. He then proceeds to pull up the animal. For deer and chiguire, land animals, a broad iron blade is used for the point, so heavy that one would suppose it would be a lance head. This is inserted into the shaft and at the point of in- sertion a crosspiece is fashioned to the shaft so that the point cannot penetrate more than 4 or 5 inches. The reason for this is that the Yaruro is afraid to lose his arrow should he fail to- kill the animal and it w^ere to run away. A barbless arrow will tend to fall out of the wound if the animal races away and then the hunter can recover it. For birds, the bone-pointed arrows are used and sometimes a special arrow consisting of a shaft with a wooden knob. However, since birds are hunted so seldom there is very little use for special arrows. The iron points are well made. Each man tries to possess himself of a stone and an iron hammer, but actually in the entire group that I saw, there were only two stones and one hammer. Iron is hard to obtain, and any scrap which comes into their possession is employed either as a knife or an arrow point. The iron is shaped both by hammering and by filing. I saw only one file in the group. At best, it must cause them a great deal of labor to fashion any of these Figure 17. — Yaruro bows, a, h. Cross sections of bows. represent original shape of wood, measuring about 7 cm before it is cut down to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1901
