The Blowgun in Mesoamerica

Blowguns survived into the twentieth century in many parts of Central America (Riley 1952, 1954). The nineteenth-century Costa Rican Tiribis blowgun was 2 to 2.5 m long and was made by punching and burning the pith out of the heart of a palm (?Bactris spp.) trunk that was nearly 5 cm in diameter. The sight consisted of two glass beads placed 1.3 cm apart on top of the blowgun. The finished blowgun was covered with resin or pitch. The clay pellets were carried in a net with two bone implements; one to drive out a pellet stuck in the blowgun and the other for trimming the pellets to the proper size and shape (Gabb 1875). In Mesoamerica, blowguns can be documented back to the fifth century. A clay vessel fragment from Teotihuacan, Mexico, depicts a man hunting birds with a blowgun. Also from Teotihuacan are 42 spherical clay pellets (Driver and Massey 1957; Linné 1934, 1939). Clay pellets have also been found at other archaeological sites. Forty-three clay pellets (average size, 1.5 cm) were found at Las Colinas and Zoquipan (Linné 1942), and at Calpulalpan, clay pellets occurred in numbers that were large in relation to other artifacts (Linné 1942). Bertha Dutton and Hulda Hobbs (1943) found pellets in the ruins of Tajumulco, Guatemala, a site approximately 20 km north of Porvenir. The blowgun was still used in Tajumulco in 1943, so the pellets, made of fired clay, were easily identified. They said that tubular bone was once used to shape the pellets, but by then empty metal cartridges were being used. Colonial writers were told that the Chichimecs (Mexico) invented the pellet blowgun and that they used the blowgun for hunting (Alegre 1841; Veytia 1836).

At the time of the Conquest, the Aztecs raised birds not only for their beauty. They also enjoyed hunting birds with blowguns. In fact, Montezuma enjoyed hunting with a blowgun and was a good shot (Gutiérrez de Santa Clara 1925; Torquemada 1943). Montezuma sent a dozen blowguns with gold ammunition to Charles V through Cortés (López de Gómara 1964 [1552]), but the ship was captured by a French pirate (MacNutt 1908). Although Cortés and López de Gómara report that a dozen blowguns were sent, Bernal Díaz (1963) mentions only three blowguns and their pellet molds, decorated with pearls and precious stones. Whatever the number, it is obvious that these blowguns were very elaborate—fit for a king. According to Cortés, the blowguns “were decorated with very excellent paintings in perfect hues, in which there were figures of many different kinds of birds, animals, flowers, and diverse other objects, and the mouthpieces and extremities were bordered with gold, a span deep, as was also the middle, all beautifully worked” (MacNutt 1908:254–255). Montezuma also gave Cortés a gold net bag to hold the gold pellets (MacNutt 1908).

The use of the blowgun during the sixteenth century in the Valley of Mexico was visually documented through an illustration on a map of a man using a blowgun to hunt (Linné 1937). Fray Bernardo de Sahagún, colonial author of the thirteen-volume Florentine Codex, mentioned that the rulers living in Mexico enjoyed hunting birds with a pellet blowgun (Sahagún 1979 [1569]). Sahagún included an illustration and description of a blowgun; he tells us that the blowgun is called Tlacalhauzquauitl in Nahuatl and that “it is slender, reed like … hollow (the hole) going clear through. It serves as a throwing device, as a blow gun, a device for hunting, for killing” (Sahagún 1963 [1569]).

Of the Colonial Maya, Friar Diego de Landa wrote that “a certain soft brass, which, when founded with a light mixture of gold yielded them … chisels which they used in making the idols and boring out the blowpipes … they used the blowpipe a great deal, and shoot well with it” (Landa 1978 [1566]).

Many different groups of twentieth-century Mesoamericans still use the blowgun. The Honduran Jicaque blowgun is made from a dry 2 to 2.5 m branch of the mogotillo tree (Saurauia englesingii Standl., Actinidiaceae). The dry pith is first drilled out by twisting a sharp-pronged green vine called rabo de iguana, or iguana tail (Mimosaceae hondurana Britton, Fabaceae) through the length of the branch, then the hole is enlarged by twisting a larger herb (Equisetum giganteum L., Equisitaceae) through the entire length of the branch. A hole is carved with a knife into a large snail shell that matches the bore of the blowgun. The ammunition is prepared by rolling small bits of clay in the palms of the hands until the pellets are the correct size to pass through a gauge hole in a shell. In addition to sizing the pellets, the shell smoothes their surface. The dry pellets are then fired in the coals of a fire (Von Hagen 1943).

The Mam Maya of western Guatemala use the blowgun to hunt birds, rabbits, squirrels, and other small game. Their blowguns are made of white pine (Pinus spp., Pinaceae) or cypress (Cupressus spp., Cupressaceae). They are 1.48 m to 1.72 m long, consisting of two carefully hollowed halves glued and nailed together with a tapered mouthpiece (Shook 1946).

In Concepción Tutuapa, Department of San Marcos, Guatemala, blowguns are made from the trunks of two small trees with soft hearts, moquillo (translates from Spanish to “little mucus,” which is a good way to describe the look of the core) found in the Porvenir forest and ixkepatze. A straight branchless trunk with a diameter of 3 to 4 cm was used. Some blowgun makers allowed the pole to dry for several days before removing the heart, while others buried the pole in mud or water so that the pith would rot away. A gun sight (a red bean set in a lump of wild beeswax that encircles the barrel and forms a lump below the sight) was placed 20 cm from the muzzle end. The barrel, after it was dry and the bore cleaned out, was treated on the exterior with beef tallow to keep it from splitting. This blowgun was twice as expensive as the split and glued type and lasted longer. The latter eventually split at the seams, causing loss of air pressure (Shook 1946).

Most Mesoamerican blowguns are 1.3 cm caliber. Edwin Shook (1946) collected unfired clay pellets and a small bamboo tool for wearing down and polishing the pellets. An empty caliber cartridge was even better, because the pellets that were close to the diameter of the barrel worked the best. The pellet bag in Figure 5 that was collected in 1927 for the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University includes a gun cartridge for shaving the pellets. The pellets averaged 2.3 g unfinished and 1.74 g finished. Formerly, tubular bone could have been used to shape the pellets (Dutton and Hobbs 1943).

Unfired clay blowgun pellets, a looped bag for carrying them, and an empty gun cartridge to shave the pellets were collected by LaFarge and Byers in 1927. Courtesy Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1987.

The Q'eqchi' immigrants of Belize, who used the blowgun in Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala, introduced the blowgun for shooting birds at San Antonio in Belize (Thompson 1930). Thompson wrote that the blowguns used by the Maya of the Toledo District in Belize ranged from 1.19 to 1.72 m long. They were constructed from wood known as komoltse. A section of the wood was chosen and placed under water in the river and left there until the soft inner core rotted away. A wad of chicle gum obtained from Manilkara achras (P. Miller) Fosberg (Sapotaceae) served as a sight. The ammunition was usually a small pellet of baked clay, which was placed in the blowgun with a piece of hollowed bone, although hard seeds were sometimes used instead of clay pellets. Thompson (1930) thought that the blowgun was useless for shooting anything except small birds.

The Blowgun in Jacaltenango, Guatemala

The Jakalteks have lived in the foothills of the Cuchumatan Mountains in northwestern Guatemala since pre-Columbian times, occupying an area centered on the town of Jacaltenango. Built on a bedrock plateau overlooking Mexico, Jacaltenango is 1,437 m above sea level and has 26 surrounding villages located at both higher and lower elevations. Its advantageous ecological position allows for a wide variety of highland and lowland products. The town of Jacaltenango is a governmental, religious, and market center, and in 1994 it had a municipal population of 26,896, of whom 8,785 lived in the city center (Funcede 1996).

Victor Montejo, a Jakaltek anthropologist, said that the town's modern name, Jacaltenango, is from the Nahuatl word xacalli tenam go (lit., “place of the huts surrounded by stones”). In Jakaltek, a member of the Kanjobalan branch of Mayan languages, the town is still referred to as Xajlaj, or “place of the big white rock slabs.” Jakaltek is called Popti' by the Academia de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala and the Guatemalan Congress. When I learned to speak Jakaltek in 1977 in Jacaltenango, I was told that the language was known as jab' xub'al in Jakaltek. Jakaltek is also spelled Jacaltec and Jacaltek.

For many years, this area was both physically and culturally the most remote from Spanish, and later European, centers in the country. The 72-km trip from Huehuetenango, the departmental capital, was a rugged two-day walk through Chiantla, Todos Santos, San Martin, and Concepción. Since 1974, when an unpaved road was built from the Pan-American Highway to Jacaltenango, it has been a five-hour bus ride from Huehuetenango to Jacaltenango. Electricity was brought into town in 1979.

Because of its relative isolation, many traditions survived in Jacaltenango. Two anthropologists, Oliver La Farge II and Douglas Byers (1931:8), lived in Jacaltenango for four months in 1927, primarily to investigate the

La Farge and Byers also documented much of the Jakaltek lifestyle and material culture. Since that time, however, Catholic missionaries have moved into town, and in the 1940s one of the priests tried to purge traditional Mayan religious practices, which forced surviving traditions into hiding.

La Farge and Byers collected a looped bag with several clay blowgun pellets and a cartridge used for shaping them (Figure 5), and they photographed a Jakaltek using a blowgun (Figure 6). The name for blowgun in Spanish is cerbatana; in Jakaltek, it is ub'al (Méndez Cruz 1997). The words for blowgun in other Mayan languages are tz'on (Classic Maya), pubché (Quekchi and Kaqchikel), pujbché (Poqomchi'), aj (Poqomam), jub (K'iche'), u'bab (Uspanteko), and jub (Ixil) (Stoll 1958).

This Jakaltek man demonstrated the use of the blowgun to LaFarge and Byers in 1927. Photographed by LaFarge and Byers in 1927. Courtesy Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.

In Jacaltenango, La Farge and Byers (1931:64) wrote:

Based on my research, the blowgun in Jacaltenango is now shorter and less popular than it was in 1927. In 1986, it was used only for hunting birds and did not play a role in local myths. Although the birds were hunted for sport, they were collected, cleaned, cooked, and eaten. Although many people had a blowgun at home, most had not used it in years.

José Ros Silvestre, a Jakaltek, learned how to use and make blowguns twenty years earlier from a friend. In 1986, he was one of two blowgun makers in Jacaltenango. Most Jakalteks preferred to use a slingshot to shoot birds and small game because the slingshot is smaller and easier to transport and the ammunition does not have to be made carefully to a specific size. With a slingshot, a stone or other material of any shape can be used as ammunition. The blowgun does have advantages, though, as it is more accurate and more powerful than a slingshot. The blowgun is also quieter than a slingshot; it does not scare the prey, allowing for a second shot.

According to José Ros Silvestre, the best blowgun is long and relatively heavy for better stability (for good aim). Two types of wood were used in the manufacture of blowguns: light and dark (which is more resistant to insects).

It took José seven days, from start to finish, to make a blowgun for me. The wood, ol ch'am (Saurauia spp., Actinidiaceae) could not have branches (Figure 7), because the knots would disorient the gelatinous-looking core (Figure 8). The inner diameter of the core is about the same (1.3–1.4 cm) on a thick or thin piece of wood. It is best to use the wood right after it has been cut, because it is difficult to remove the core after the wood has dried.

The tip of the branch, which was too thin, was cut off the debarked thicker portion. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

The core of the branch is very soft and gelatinous looking. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

The leaves were removed from a trunk with a diameter of 4 to 4.5 cm, and every 10 minutes it was rotated over a fire for about two hours until the bark was carbonized. The fire treatment softened the core and insured that the wood would not crack later.

The bark was removed with a machete (Figure 9). A thin wire was then stuck through the core (Figure 10) and pulled out, creating a 5-mm hole. Two days later, the hole was enlarged to 9 mm with a thicker wire. Before wire was available, José said, a hard stick was probably used to start the hole.

After the wood has been roasted, the bark is completely removed with a machete. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

A wire is pushed through and pulled out of the soft core to make a hole. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

Leaves were removed with a machete from 12 Cycas circiinalis L. (Cycadaceae)—smotx b'alam in Jakaltek, which translates to “jaguar's ribs” (Figures 11 and 12). Each thorny stalk was gently pushed and pulled through the future blowgun. The particles were blown out each time the stalk was removed (Figure 13). This procedure was repeated for four days until a 12 mm hole was formed and all of the core had been removed.

The thorny stalks from 12 Cycadaceae are used to enlarge the barrel hole. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

The leaves are carefully removed from the Cycadaceae. Care is taken to leave the thorns intact, and the thick end of the stalk is broken off. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

The loosened particles inside the blowgun are blown out each time the stalk is removed. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

A wire with sisal (Agave spp., Agavaceae) cord wrapped around one end was used to smooth the inside of the blowgun (Figure 14.) The final inner smoothing was done for about one hour with a piece of fine sandpaper wrapped around the sisal-tipped wire.

José Ros Silvestre wraps a wire with sisal. It will be pushed and pulled inside the blowgun over and over until the bore is smooth. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

To see whether the channel had been enlarged enough, a clay pellet—bodoque in Spanish—was inserted and blown through the barrel. If the pellet got stuck, it was backed out of the blowgun by hitting the mouthpiece of the blowgun on the floor. The high spots were then removed. When the inner barrel was finished, the outside of the barrel was smoothed with sandpaper (Figure 15).

The outside of the blowgun is smoothed with sandpaper. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

The inside barrel of the blowgun should curve slightly upward at the muzzle end. Because my blowgun was too curved, it was gently straightened by placing it in the upper “V” section of a house post and bent against the curve for about two hours. Once the blowgun had been straightened, a depression around the mouthpiece was cut with a machete (Figure 16), then a sight was made by putting a red bean of the Erythina macrophylla—ukun in Jakaltek—on the blowgun with beeswax, ixkab' (Méndez Cruz 1997). The sight was put on top of the heavier end that slightly curved upward. On a long blowgun, the sight was placed two hand spans (40 cm) from the muzzle end of the blowgun; on a shorter one, it was placed one hand span and three fingers (26 cm) from the end. The blowgun that José made for me was 1.29 m long, with a sight placed 30 cm from the end. Yellow or black clay was sometimes added in a lump under the sight when the diameter of the blowgun was too thin to add weight for more stability and a better aim.

A depression around the mouthpiece is cut with a machete. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

The ammunition consisted of spherical dry seeds or pellets made from local river clay. The clay was dug up and used without processing because it was free of debris. A small bit was pinched off a lump of clay and rolled between the palms of the hands (Figure 17). The pellets were slightly larger than needed to allow for shrinkage and refinement. The pellets were set aside to dry and then stored in a small sisal looped shoulder bag that had a piece of umbrella shaft attached to it with a sisal string. (José used the umbrella shaft, a hollow metal tube 4 cm long, because he did not have a bullet cartridge.) As a pellet was needed, it was pushed onto the top of the umbrella shaft and rolled (Figure 18). The shaft shaved off excess clay and made the pellet smooth, shiny, and round.

Clay is rolled between the palms of the hand to make pellets that are slightly larger than needed, because the pellets will shrink as they dry and then be scraped. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

As a pellet is needed, it is removed from the storage pouch and shaved smooth with a tubular tool. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

José then inserted the shaved pellet between his lips (Figure 19), brought the blowgun to his mouth, steadied it with his hands, sighted on the head of the target, and fired with an explosive-like blow (Figure 20). All Jakaltek blowgun hunters whom I observed refined and loaded their ammunition and placed their hands on the blowgun in the same manner, with the right hand clasped around the blowgun, against the mouth, and the left hand next to it with the fingers upward. The same grasp is used in other parts of the world (Sprinzin 1928; Vellard 1965).

The pellet is placed between the hunter's lips before the blowgun is brought to his mouth. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

Like the Hero Twins before him, he brings the blowgun to his mouth, steadies it with his hands, sights it on the head of a bird or the eye of a small animal, and then fires it with a powerful blow. Photo by Carol Ventura, 1986.

For good luck, some of the victims' blood is smeared on the sight. A blowgun with a bloodstained sight is good, because it demonstrates that the blowgun has killed a lot of birds. When a Jakaltek examines a friend's blowgun, this is the first thing that is noticed.

José prefers to hunt in October because birds are plentiful then. He cleaned the barrel with a piece of dry corn husk and sisal string. Then, because few birds were around in July when I visited, we shot clay pellets at a tin can.