It must be admitted that the Indian is no sportsman in the pursuit of
game, the claims of the pot being always paramount. He rarely shoots at
a flying bird unless to fire into the midst of a flock of parrots or
wild ducks, and when after the larger game he waits till he can deliver
the contents of his gun point-blank into some vital part. This practice
may be due partly to the limitations of his weapon, which till recent
years consisted of a muzzle-loading section of gas pipe, nearly as
dangerous when discharged to the hunter as to the game, and partly to
the fact that the bush is usually so dense that an animal, if not shot
at point-blank range, can not be gotten at all. It is probably not more
than four generations since the use of the bow and arrow died out among
the Indians in the western part of British Honduras, as old men among
them have told me that they could remember seeing a few still in use
when they were very young. The flint arrowheads, they said, were
obtained down the Mopan River. This seems quite possible, as at Baker's,
not far from Belize, there is an outcrop of flint, where, judging by the
great heaps of fresh-looking chips and rejects still in existence, a
considerable "factory" must have existed at a comparatively recent date.
Some of these old men could still make fairly serviceable bows and
arrows, the heads of the latter being cut from hardwood.
The principal game animals of this region are the deer (_ke_), two
species of wild hog, the warri and peccary (_kekem_), gibnut (_halib_),
armadillo (_vetsh_), wild turkey (_kutz_), parrot (_tut_), pigeons of
various kinds (_mucui_), curassow (_kambul_), quam (_cosh_), quail
(_num_), and partridge (_mankolom_). Besides these, birds in great
variety, reptiles, and mammals are killed and eaten from time to time,
including plovers, garzas, toucans, water hens, wild ducks, and
chichalacas. The iguana (_tolok_) is eaten by the Indians in the west of
British Honduras, as are also the woula (_ochkan_), a large constrictor
snake, and the rattlesnake, known as the _cazon i kash_, or "little
shark of the woods." Turtles (_sacak_) are often captured along the east
coast of Yucatan and the adjacent islands, and their eggs in the
breeding season form a great delicacy for the Santa Cruz Indians living
in the neighborhood of Tuluum. Hicatee (_ak_) and bucatora are caught in
great numbers in all the rivers and lagoons. The tiger (_balam_), puma
(_coh_), picote (_chic_), monkey (_maash_), tapir (_tzimin_), squirrel
(_kuuk_), cane rat (_tšo_), and other animals are hunted from time to
time, either for their skins or flesh. Deer are secured in considerable
numbers in the rutting season by imitating their call with a wooden
whistle (fig. 6); they are also found in the milpas, just after the
burning, where they come to lick the slightly saline ashes. At this time
the owners build platforms on poles 10 to 12 feet high, on top of which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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