408 Mr. Schomburgk on the Indian Atroiv Poison, 



who carried her child on her back was shot with a poisoned 

 arrow", and though the child was not wounded, it began to 

 swell, and died a short time after. 



At the commencement of the 19th century Baron de Hum- 

 boldt gave an authentic account of the preparation of that 

 poison and its effects ; but later travellers, not contented with 

 the simple method of its preparation, covered it anew with 

 the veil of mystery, and it was thought that " the vegetable 

 extract was merely the medium through which the poison is 

 conveyed — the common Wooraly owing its poisonous quality 

 to the infusion of the large ants, called Muneery, and the 

 stronger kind from the fangs of venomous reptiles, particu- 

 larly the Coony Coochy, which is the most venomous of all 

 known snakes *.^' The author of ^ Wanderings in South Ame- 

 rica,^ Mr. Charles Waterton, gives a similar account of its 

 preparation. He says, "a day or two before the Macoushi 

 Indian prepares his poison, he goes into the forest in quest of 

 the ingredients. A vine grows in these wilds, which is called 

 Wourali. It is from this that the poison takes its name, and 

 it is the principal ingredient. When he has procured enough 

 of this, he digs up a root of a very bitter taste, ties them to- 

 gether, and then looks about for two kinds of bulbous plants, 

 which contain a green and gelatinous juice. He fills a little 

 quake which he carries on his back with the stalks of this, 

 and lastly ranges up and down till he finds two species of 

 ants. One of them is very large and black, and so venomous 

 that its sting produces a fever : it is most commonly to be 

 met with on the ground. The other is a little red ant which 

 stings like a nettle, and has its nest under the leaf of a shrub. 

 After obtaining these, he has no more need to range the forest. 

 A quantity of the strongest Indian pepper is used, but this he 

 has already planted round his hut. The pounded fangs of the 

 Labarri Snake, and those of the Conna Couchi, are likewise 

 added. These he commonly has in store ; for when he kills 

 a snake, he generally extracts the fangs, and keeps them by 

 himf.^^ This is the adorned story of the ingredients for the 

 preparation of the Urari, and rests upon the fictitious accounts 

 which these travellers may have received, but surely not upon 

 personal experience. 



These various accounts, so contradictory as regards the 

 mode of preparation and the origin of the poison, were well 

 calculated to raise in me the desire of removing the mystery 

 connected with it ; and I was fortunate enough to accompHsh 

 my wish during my first expedition in the interior of British 



* Montgomery Martin's * History of the British Colonies/ vol. ii. p. 47. 

 \ ' Wanderings in South America/ by Charles Waterton, Esq., p. 55. 



