I now had a remarkable opportunity to watch the war preparations of these savage, cannibal people, my friends, the Mangeromas.  Their army consisted of twelve able-bodied men, all fine muscular fellows, about five feet ten in height, and bearing an array of vicious-looking weapons such as few white men have seen.  First of all were three club-men, armed with strong, slender clubs, of hard and extremely tough Caripari wood.  The handle, which was very slim, was provided with a knob at the end to prevent the club from slipping out of the hand when in action.  The heavy end was furnished with six bicuspid teeth of the black jaguar, embedded in the wood and projecting about two inches beyond the surface.  The club had a total length of five feet and weighed about eight pounds.  The second division of the wild-looking band consisted of three spear-men, each provided with the three-pronged spears, a horrible weapon which always proves fatal in the hands of these savages.  It is a long straight shaft of Caripari wood, about one inch in thickness, divided into three parts at the end, each division being tipped with a barbed bone of the sting-ray.  These bones, about three and a half inches long, were smeared with wourahli poison, and thus rendered absolutely fatal even when inflicting only a superficial wound.  Each man carried two of these spears, the points being protected by grass-sheaths.  The third division was composed of three bow-and-arrow men, the youngest men in the tribe, boys of sixteen and seventeen.  They were armed with bows of great length, from six to seven feet, and each bore, at his left side, a quiver, containing a dozen big-game arrows fully five feet long.  These arrows, as far as I could ascertain, were not poisoned, but their shock-giving and rending powers were extraordinary.  The arrow-heads were all made of the bones of the sting-ray, in themselves formidable weapons, because of the many jagged barbs that prevent extraction from a wound except by the use of great force, resulting in ugly laceration.

The fourth and last division consisted of three blow-gun men, the most effective and cunning of this deadly and imposing array.  As so much depended upon the success of a first attack on the Peruvians, who not only outnumbered us, but also were armed with Winchesters, the blow-guns were in the hands of the older and more experienced men.  All, except the club-men, wore, around the waist, girdles fringed with mutum plumes, and the captains added, to their uniforms multi-coloured fringes of squirrel tails.  Their faces all had the usual scarlet and black stripes.  The Chief, and his principal aide, or sub-Chief, had on their gayest feathers, including head ornaments of arara plumes and egrets.  The club-men were naked, except for their head-gear, which consisted simply of a band of mutum plumes.  When the warriors stood together in their costumes, ready for battle, they presented an awe-inspiring sight.