. Wanderings in the great forests of Borneo; travels and researches of a naturalist in Sarawak. Botany; Zoology; Artocarpus; Bananas. if VI11] UPAS AND ITS PREPARATION ^hich, however, they do not make themselves, but get from the runans. These are the only kind of arrows used in Borneo, where Tjhe bow^ appears to be quite unknown. The possibility of obtaining guch a deadly poison as upas must have caused the sumpitan to Supersede the bow. Without this or some similar poison the sum- pitan is a harmless weapon and something more efficacious becomes a necessity. As a proof of this I may instance
. Wanderings in the great forests of Borneo; travels and researches of a naturalist in Sarawak. Botany; Zoology; Artocarpus; Bananas. if VI11] UPAS AND ITS PREPARATION ^hich, however, they do not make themselves, but get from the runans. These are the only kind of arrows used in Borneo, where Tjhe bow^ appears to be quite unknown. The possibility of obtaining guch a deadly poison as upas must have caused the sumpitan to Supersede the bow. Without this or some similar poison the sum- pitan is a harmless weapon and something more efficacious becomes a necessity. As a proof of this I may instance certain tribes in ^outh America, who, as is well known, make use of a deadly poison known as curare, urari, or wourali, prepared from some species of Strychnos, and are also furnished with a blow-tube, whilst all the other primitive native tribes of the same region use the bow. In order to prepare upas poison, the milky sap of Antiaris toxi-. Fig. 50. SHOOTING MONKEYS WITH THE SUMPITAN. (From the Sculptures of the Boro Budor Temple, Java.) carta is collected by making incisions in the bark, and is then con- densed by exposure to the sun until sufficiently thick to adhere to the palm leaves on which it is poured. These leaves are folded so as to cover the gummy sap, and hung up over the fireplace so that complete desiccation is obtained. When the poison is wanted for use, the dried sap is dissolved in the juice of the roots of those plants used for catching fish by poisoning the water generically known as tuba by the Malays. My informers specified these by the names of tuba rabut, tuba tedau, and tuba hennar. The upas must be dissolved in the juice of one of the above-mentioned kinds—whether fresh or not does not matter—until the mixture becomes of the consistence of a paste, and this is spread on the points of the diminutive sum- the product of a creeper which grows in the Bintulu region. I was, however, unable to get any further information on this plant, which may possib
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