Och, the dirty spalpeens! Martin, dear, we're done for.
There's no chance for us at all." This impression seemed to take such deep hold of Barney's mind, that his usually reckless and half jesting disposition was completely subdued, and he walked along in gloomy silence, while a feeling of deep dejection filled the heart of his young companion.
The blow-pipe which these Indians use is an ingeniously contrived weapon.
It is made from a species of palm-tree.

When an Indian wants one, he goes into the woods and selects a tree with a long slender stem of less than an inch in diameter; he extracts the pith out of this, and then cuts another stem, so much larger than the first that he can push the small tube into the bore of the large one,--thus the slight bend in one is counteracted by the other, and a perfectly straight pipe is formed.

The mouthpiece is afterwards neatly finished off.

The arrows used are very short, having a little ball of cotton at the end to fill the tube of the blow-pipe.

The points are dipped in a peculiar poison, which has the effect of producing death when introduced into the blood by a mere scratch of the skin.