Weapons & Warriors: The Stingray Tete of the Māori

This was another weapon I saw on The Deadliest Warrior TV show. I don’t believe it was primarily a Māori weapon, but it was occasionally used by them. As you know, I don’t usually talk about spears unless there is more to them than a stick with a sharp end. This spear is definitely one of the wicked ones. I think this spear is almost as frightening as Makrigga to look at. Although it is less likely to disembowel you, it delivers its own kind of pain in the form of poisonous barbed stingers.

The word Tete is used by Māori for any short spear that is designed for the head to break off once it impacts its target. Most often these look like your average spear with the spearhead made of whale bone, sometimes the bone is carved into three points which allowed a wider impact point for striking at fast moving animals. The particular Tete I’m talking about today replaces the whale bone with several stingers from Stingrays. The stinger of one of these marine animals houses poison inside. Lucky for most people who are stung by a Stingray, the poison is not really lethal to humans. The incident with Steve Irwin (aka: Crocodile Hunter) was a freak accident. The stinger actually pierced his heart, and that is why he died, not because he was poisoned to death.

Weapons & Warriors: The Strychnine Arrow of the Zande Warrior

You might ask yourself, what is so special about an arrow? Why not a bow? To simply put it, the standard bow that the Zande Warrior used in battle was just like most standard archaic bows. It’s a hard material, either bone or wood that is flexible enough to bend. Then a strand of horse hair or other animal hair is tied to either end to create a slingshot effect when pulled. That was the simplest way I know of describing the construction of a bow.

However, the bow is not my focus in this post. Zande warriors trained with bows as did many people of the Azande. It was a hunting tool as much as a weapon. What was different with the Zande Warrior firing a bow was that his arrow had an extra ingredient. It is something common enough that it is still easily accessible today and still as dangerous.



You have probably heard of Strychnine. This stuff is real nasty, too. Not only is it painful, it will keep you awake and alert until you actually die a slow agonizing death. Once introduced into your blood stream, Strychnine will basically cause uncontrollable muscle spasms. That includes all of your muscles, your face, abdomen, and eventually your lungs.