The American Boy's Handy Book/Chapter 22

The fierce and savage head hunters of Borneo go to war armed with the same implements with which the school-boys shoot peas or pellets of clay at unsuspecting citizens as they pass the ambuscade of tree or fence. The blow-guns used by the Dyaks of Borneo are called sumpitans, and instead of clay balls they carry poisoned arrows. A spear is also attached to the side of one end of the sumpitan, after the manner of a bayonet on a modern rifle. In speaking of the sumpitan a recent writer says: "This curious weapon is about eight feet in length and not quite an inch in diameter, and is bored with the greatest accuracy, a task that occupies a long time, the wood being very hard and the interior of the sumpitan smooth and even polished. It is not always made of the same wood. The surface is of equal thickness from end to end." Among the South American Indians the sumpitan is represented by the long delicate "pucuna," or the heavy and unwieldy "zarabatana." All savages use poisoned arrows in their blow-guns instead of harmless pellets of clay or putty. Taking a few hints from the primitive warriors and hunters of Borneo and South America, any boy, with a little care and small expense, can construct for himself a blow-gun which will be handy to carry around and will shoot with great accuracy. Mr. W. Hamilton Gibson, the well-known artist, has acquired such skill with the blow-gun that he seldom misses the mark, and often brings home ​birds and other creatures brought down by a clay pellet blown from a glass sumpitan.

For twenty-five cents a glass tube, three or four feet long, can be purchased. With these tubes can be made the best of blowguns, but they are objectionable on account of being liable to break at any moment from some accidental blow or jar. With some flannel or woollen cloth and an old piece of cane fishing-pole a cover and a case can be made to enclose the glass and prevent its being broken by anything short of a severe knock or fall.

Select a good straight piece of glass tube about three or four feet long. To discover whether the glass tube is straight or not, hold it horizontally level with the eye and look through it, and any deviation will be quickly seen. Wrap the tube with strips of flannel or woollen cloth, as illustrated by Fig. 131, A. Image missingFig. 131..The Hunter's Blow-Gun. The cloth will make a soft covering or cushion for the outside of the glass and render it less liable to break. With a red-hot iron rod, or some similar instrument, enlarge the hollow in the centre of a piece of cane until the blow-gun can be slid inside the cane. With putty, shoemakers' wax or beeswax secure the tips of the tube in place. Trim off the ends of the cane until they are flush with the ends of the glass. You will then have a blow-gun that can be used to hunt with (B, Fig. 131). For missiles may be used arrows, tacks, peas, or clay. The arrows ​must be very small, and a pin with its head filed off makes a simple point; some raw cotton bound on the butt end to make it fit the inside of the gun finishes the missile (Fig. 131, D). The tack is prepared by fastening short pieces of worsted or carpet ravellings to it just below the head with shoemakers' or beeswax (C, Fig. 131).

This not only fills up the space inside the blow-gun, making it fit, but the yarn also acts as a feather does upon an arrow and causes the tack to fly straight and point foremost. The worsted-headed tack is a "tip-top" missile for target practice. The clay pellet will bring down small birds, stunning them, but doing them no serious injury, so that if the birds are quickly picked up they can be captured alive.

Along the Mississippi River, from New Orleans to Nashville, there are still some remnants of the Indians that in olden times paddled their canoes up and down the Father of Waters. The boys among these tribes make splendid blow-guns out of cane. When the inside is bored out they straighten the cane by heating it over hot coals, and then, after attaching a heavy weight to one end, suspending it by a string attached to the other end. The heat from the hot coals makes the cane pliable, and before it becomes cold and hard, the weights make it almost as straight and true as a rifle-barrel.

Some time during the summer of each year a boy used to appear with a squirt-gun made of a piece of cane. Squirt-gun-time then commenced, next day four or five guns might be seen on the play-grounds, and before a week had passed the curbstone in front of the little frame school-house presented a line of boys all busily engaged in seeing who could shoot the greatest distance; the dusty macadamized street registered every drop of water by a muddy spot. I found that by adding ​a quill as a nozzle to my "squirt" it would throw water much further than the others. It is a very simple thing to make a good squirt-gun, and one may be manufactured in a few minutes.

First cut a joint from a piece of an old cane fishing-pole, being careful not to disturb the pithy substance that almost closes the hollow at the joints. Insert a quill for a nozzle at Image missingFig. 132.Cane Squirt-Gun. one of the joints and see that it fits tightly; leave the other end open. With your pocket-knife fashion from a piece of pine or cedar the plunger (B, Fig. 132); leave the wood a little thicker at both ends and wrap a rag around one end, making it just thick enough to fit snugly in the cane after wetting it. This completes the "squirt" (A, Fig. 132). To use it, immerse the quill in water, first push the plunger in, then draw it out slowly until the gun is filled with water. Take aim, and when you push the plunger back again the water will issue from the quill in a sudden stream, travelling quite a distance. One of these water-guns is quite useful in the garden; by its means the insects infesting the rose bushes and other shrubs may be knocked off in no time. When the owner of an aquarium finds dead animals or plants that should be removed, located in some crack or cranny that is difficult to reach, the squirt-gun is just the thing to dislodge the objects without disturbing the surrounding rocks or plants.

When the author was a very small boy he was taught by some playmates to make an elder gun, a simple contrivance, made of a piece of elder or any other hollow stick. A long ​notch cut in one side admits a spring made of whalebone (Fig. 133). By pushing the spring back the short arrow shown in the illustration can be propelled quite a distance. If instead of the awkward whalebone spring a piece of elastic be used, Image missingFig. 134.Plunger Pistol a much neater gun can be made. Fig. 134 shows a pistol made with an elder barrel and a stock of pine. A plunger, similar in many respects to the one used in the squirt-gun, is made with an edge to catch in the trigger. An elastic band is bound to the barrel with string, and the loop fastened to the butt end of the plunger. When the latter is drawn back to the trigger it stretches the elastic. By pulling the trigger toward you it loosens the plunger, which flies back with a snap, sending the arrow out with considerable force. The barrel of the pistol may be fastened to the stock by two strips of tin or leather. The diagram shows the form of the Image missingFig. 135.Pistol without a Plunger. trigger, which should be made so as to move readily backward or forward upon the screw that fastens it to the stock. Fig. 135 shows how a pistol can be made to work without a plunger. In this case the barrel is partly cut off from A to B. The arrow should be made to fit in the groove, so that when the elastic is loosened it will strike the arrow in the same manner ​that the string of a cross-bow does. Both these pistols, if made with good, strong elastic, will shoot quite a distance, and if the arrows are armed with a tack or pin in the head they can be used in target practice. We now come to a gun in which the spring is the principal part.

A certain old gentleman was at one time very much annoyed by fine bird-shot which at all times of the day came rattling against the window-panes of his study. Being somewhat of a philosopher, the old man at last became deeply interested in investigating the cause of his annoyance. From the window Image missingSpring Shot-gun. he could see a house separated from his study by a deep back yard, a vacant lot, and another yard. While peering out between the blinds of his window he saw a boy appear at one of the windows of the distant house; the boy held something in his left hand which he pulled with his right; almost instantly there was a rattling of bird-shot against the old gentleman's window glass, and the boy disappeared. But so great was the distance that separated the two houses that it was impossible for the old man to distinguish what sort of an instrument the mischievous lad used to propel the fine shot so far and with such force. The youngster was at last waylaid, and the mystery solved. The machine used proved to be a spring shot-gun. No powder or explosive is used with one of these guns, neither does it possess stock, trigger, or sights, but simply consists of a stick of whalebone or any other ​elastic material, one end of which is armed with a large quill, corked at its lower end.

When the quill is filled with fine bird-shot and the end of the stick grasped by the left hand, the contents of the quill can be thrown an amazing distance by bending the quill end back and allowing it to suddenly fly forward, upon the principle of the whip bow. If instead of a small piece of whalebone a large and very elastic rod be used, with a tin tube in the place of the quill, an effective weapon will be produced useful for hunting and collecting purposes; although the shot cast from the tube will have sufficient force to stun a small bird, it will not injure the specimen by making ugly holes in the skin and staining the feathers with blood. All of the weapons described in this and other chapters should be used with care, for many of them are capable of inflicting severe wounds. Never aim a bended bow with arrow set at a companion or friend, for a little slip may cause irreparable harm. Even a blunt arrow propelled from a barrel-hoop bow has sufficient force to destroy an eye or make a severe bruise. A true sportsman has the greatest respect for his weapons and handles them with scrupulous care.