blowgun, tubular weapon from which projectiles are forcefully propelled by human breath. Primarily for hunting, it is rarely used in warfare. Employed by Malaysians and other Southeast Asian aboriginals, in southern India and Sri Lanka, in Madagascar (Malagasy Republic), in northwestern South America, in Central America north to central Mexico, among southeastern American Indians, and in Melanesia (rarely), it also may have been used prehistorically in the Antilles. Apparently invented by Malaysians, blowguns were Pre-Columbian in both hemispheres; whether their occurrence in the New World represents reinvention or introduction remains uncertain.
Blowguns vary in length from 18 inches to more than 23 feet (45 centimetres to 7 metres). The simplest of the four basic types is a single tube, usually a section of cane or bamboo. If the bamboo internodes are short, the septa may be burned or punched out and the interior polished. Single-tube bamboo blowguns occur widely, often in peripheral regions of use or where the weapon serves as a toy. Another variety has an inner and an outer tube. In the Old World (notably Malaya) these are usually bamboo, the inner tube commonly being made of two sections fitted into a short length of bamboo; the outer tube also may be composite. In northernmost South America, a palm stem (pith removed) is the usual outer tube; occasionally another serves as the inner tube. A third major variety is made by splitting a length of wood, carving half the bore on each face, and binding the halves together. This split type is found in scattered locations including Malaya, Borneo, the Philippines, Japan, south India, and South America on the Pacific Coast and between the Negro and the Madeira rivers and has also been reported from Louisiana. Apparently unknown to New World artisans, the most difficult type of blowgun to construct is made from a single block of wood about 2.5 m (8 feet) long. After the bore is carefully drilled with a chisel on the end of a long rod, the block is trimmed to a cylinder. This type is most common in Borneo, with a spear usually attached. Single-piece wooden guns are known from Bali and the Celebes; in Madagascar the bore is burned out with a heated iron rod.
Darts are the most common blowgun missiles. They are usually made from palm-leaf midribs or from wood or bamboo splinters, and they may vary from 4 to 100 cm (1.5 to 40 inches) in length. A conelike bit of pith or a twist of fibre at the base of the dart makes it fit the tube snugly, ensuring that it will fly out of the tube from a puff of human breath. Clay pellets or bits of bone are also used as darts by some peoples. A hunter usually carries his darts in a quiver made of bamboo, basketry, wood, or leaves.
To be effective against quarry larger than small birds, blowgun darts require poison. The darts often are notched so that the poisoned tip will break off in the victim. The most common Old World poison is made from the sap of the upas tree (Antiaris toxicaria) and kills by cardiac effects; also used are the lianas Strychnos strychnos and Strophanthus. In South America, curare, whose action is paralytic, is widely used, though obtained from relatively few tribes, who prepare it largely from the Strychnos toxifera vine. Other poisons are made from snake venom, insect poisons, and decaying flesh. Dart poisons are not recorded for North American peoples.