If A Spear Drop From Them When Thus Engaged,
They Do Not Stoop To Pick It Up, But Hook It Between The Toes And So Lift It
Until It Meet The Hand.
Thus the eye is never diverted from its object,
the foe.
If they wish to break a spear or any wooden substance, they lay it
not across the thigh or the body, but upon the head, and press down the ends
until it snap. Their shields are of two sorts. That called 'illemon'
is nothing but a piece of bark with a handle fixed in the inside of it.
The other, dug out of solid wood, is called 'aragoon', and is made as follows,
with great labour. On the bark of a tree they mark the size of the shield,
then dig the outline as deep as possible in the wood with hatchets,
and lastly flake it off as thick as they can, by driving in wedges.
The sword is a large heavy piece of wood, shaped like a sabre, and capable
of inflicting a mortal wound. In using it they do not strike with the convex
side, but with the concave one, and strive to hook in their antagonists
so as to have them under their blows. The fishing-lines are made of the bark
of a shrub. The women roll shreds of this on the inside of the thigh,
so as to twist it together, carefully inserting the ends of every fresh piece
into the last made.
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