A
Very Clever Invention Was An Arrow Made For Shooting Deer And Pig.
The
steel point was comparatively small, and it was fitted very lightly
to a small piece of wood, which was also lightly placed in the end
of the arrow.
Attached at one end to the arrow-head was a long piece
of stout native cord, which was wound round the shaft, the other end
being fastened to the main shaft. When the arrow was shot into a pig,
for instance, the steel head soon fell apart from the small bit of
wood, which in its turn would also drop off from the main shaft. The
thick cord would then gradually become unwound, and together with
the shaft would trail on the ground till at length it would be caught
fast in the bamboos or other thick growth, and the pig would then be
at the mercy of its pursuers. The steel head, being barbed, could
not be pulled out in the pig's struggles to break loose. I had one
of these arrows presented to me by the chief of these Negritos, but,
as a rule, they are very hard to get as the Negritos value them very
highly. An American officer I met in Manila told me that he had been
quartered for some time in a district where there were many Negritos,
and though he had offered large rewards for one of these arrows he was
not successful in getting one. The women manufacture enormous baskets,
which I often saw them carrying on their backs when I met them in
the forest.
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