420 Mr. Schomburgk on the Indian Arrow Poison, 



the chapel, but sat without, considering, as I suppose, that he would 

 become defiled by congregating with the people, and thereby destroy 

 the power of the Urary. 



" I must now conclude, and beg your acceptance of the above 

 observations, as coming from one who wishes you every success in 

 your arduous undertaking, as also your welfare in general, both of 

 soul and body. 



" Remaining ever yours, 



" T. YOND." 



Bancroft, in his ^ Natural History of Guiana/ gives us a 

 description of the manner in which the Acawais prepare the 

 " Woorara/' as he calls it, which, in its general mode, agrees 

 with Mr. Yond^s and my own observations. He distinctly 

 says, "the ingredients are all ^nibbees*' of different kinds.^* 

 There is no doubt that different nations prepare their Urari 

 in different modes, but the active principle subsists in one or 

 the other species of Strychnos. 



I have already alluded to Humboldt's account of the mode 

 of preparation at Esmeralda, at the time of his journey the 

 place most famed at the Upper Orinoco for making the arrow- 

 poison. Von Humboldt's narrative is too generally known 

 to demand a recital of his graphic account. However, Esme- 

 ralda is no longer what it was forty years ago ; and when I 

 visited it in 1839 I found it merely inhabited by an Indian 

 patriarch and his family, who, on my inquiries, informed me 

 that he bought his poison from the Indian tribes who inhabit 

 the banks of the rivers Paramu and Ventuari, namely, the 

 Guinaus and the Maiongkongs. These tribes, who were 

 known to the Spaniards under the name of Maquiritares, call 

 their poison Cumarawa and Markuri, and distinctly make a 

 difference between it and the Urari, which they gladly prefer 

 in consequence of its superior quality, and which they barter 

 from the Macusis and Arecunas, giving in return the Curata, 

 that admirable reed, sometimes sixteen feet long without an 

 internode, and of which the celebrated blow-pipes or Sarba- 

 cans are madef. From what I learned when amongst these 



* Lianas, or ligneous twiners, are called nibbees or bushropes by the 

 colonists. — S. 



t Vide Annals of Natural History, vol. v. p. 44, and Linnsean Transac- 

 tions, vol. xviii. p. 557.— It is very remarkable that the plant of which the poi- 

 son is made, and the reed which forms such an important part in the con- 

 struction of the blow-pipe, with which the poisoned arrows are propelled, 

 are plants not equally dispersed over these regions, but grow merely on 

 isolated spots. The Arundinar'ia {Arundinaria Schomhurgkii, Bennett), 

 which furnishes that remarkable reed, appears to be limited to the chain of 

 sandstone mountains which extends between the second and fourth parallel 

 of north latitude. The only localities which I ascertained were Mounts 



