Before entering a battle, they lay aside their finest arrows to be employed on the blow which they think of most importance, generally having one of tried virtue in readiness to defend themselves in urgent peril, or to slay some one whose death they particularly desire. When they wish not to kill, but to take alive, birds and other small animals, they use arrows furnished with a little ball of wood or wax, instead of a point: with this they stun and knock down the animal, but do not kill it. Whenever they are unable to direct the weapon straight to the mark, on account of some intervening obstacle, they shoot it archwise, giving it a curved direction, in the same manner as in besieging camps, balls of fire are cast from mortars. The Abipones stand in no need of these to set fire to houses; for they fasten burning cotton or tow to the ends of their arrows, and casting them against roofs of wood or straw, set fire to whatever they like, from ever so great a distance. Many towns of the Spaniards were reduced to ashes by this fatal artifice. In the town of the Rosary, I had the thatch of my house plastered over with thick mud to protect it from the flames cast by the arrows of the neighbouring savages. With the same view, I covered a wooden observatory, constructed for the purpose of watching the motions of the savages, with hides; nor did the contrivance disappoint my hopes. The spear and the bow, though the chief arms of the Abipones, are not the only ones. They have a weapon composed of three stone balls, covered with leather, and fastened together by as many thongs meeting in one: this they whirl round, and then cast, with a sure aim, at men and beasts; by which means they are either killed or so noosed, as to prevent them from moving. This formidable weapon, which the Spaniards call _las bolas_, is much used by the southern savages. The lower orders of Spaniards, and all the Indians and Negroes, whenever they ride out are constantly seen with these balls hanging at their saddle or girth; indeed they are in very general use. I have spoken at large in the seventh chapter, of the wooden club _macana_, which they use at home for amusement, and abroad for killing men and beasts. The sling, in the use of which the Guaranies are so expert, is thought little of by the Abipones; amongst them it is only used by boys to knock down small birds with. They have a bow which, instead of a string, is furnished with a piece of cloth, three inches wide, and made of a material very like hemp; stretching this with the hand, they shoot off small clay balls, instead of arrows, to kill birds and other small animals. That wooden tube from which little balls or nails, furnished with silken or linen threads to aid their flight, are blown by the mouth, is unknown to the Abipones, but I am informed that it is used by certain Peruvian Indians dwelling amongst the Moxos and Baures. These people, not being provided