Читать книгу Blowgun Techniques - Amante P. Marinas Sr. - Страница 7

Our house was surrounded by trees, mostly fruit-bearing, such as mango, guava, atis, guyabano, kamatsile, saresa, balubad and bignay. They would shed their leaves once a year at which time my mother would use the walis na tingting.

To the left of my house were two kapok trees. To the right of my house, reachable from our open porch is achiote. A few feet away from the achiote are banana plants. To the back of the house was our bamboo grove.

Thus, I had all that was needed to make a blowgun—bamboo for the barrel and for the dart, walis na tingting for the dart, kapok to feather and achiote to color my darts and a ready made soft target: banana trunks.

But the sumpit, the blowgun that I made, served only as a toy.

I now live in Fredericksburg, Virginia half a world away from Pambuan, a small village in Central Luzon in the Philippines where I grew up.

I still shoot blowguns. But the blowguns and the darts that I now shoot, I buy from mail order houses.