422 Mr. Schomburgk on the Indian Arrow Poison, 



cotinifolia, Hura crepitans, or the astringent fruits of Guat- 

 teria veneficiorum, M. ; and superstitious Indians add the first 

 frog which they hear croaking that day, the great black ant, 

 or teeth of poisonous snakes/^ The addition of the teeth of 

 poisonous snakes and the great black ants, rests here, again, 

 not upon personal experience, but merely on the information 

 of Brazilians, no doubt equally inoculated as our colonists 

 with the wish to see through the mystic veil. Dr. Poppig, 

 in his ' Reise in Chili, Peru, und auf dem Amazonenstrome,^ 

 Leipzig, 1836, vol. ii. p. 456, observes, with respect to the 

 arrow-poison of Peru, " The supposition occasionally met with 

 in Peru, that animal poisons were mixed in the composition, 

 has not met any confirmation.^' 



M. Orfila, in his work on General Toxicology, M. Emmer 

 (^ De Effectu Venenorum veget. Americ.'), and others, have 

 published able treatises on the effect of this poison. The re- 

 sults are, that when inspissated it may be rendered liquid by 

 heat, and is soluble in water, in alcohol, in muriatic acid, and 

 in volatile alkaline spirit. It unites with acids without emo- 

 tion or change of colour. If it be mixed with alkalis, no 

 ebulHtion is observable, but it changes its colour from a dark 

 .brown to a yellowish brown. " A few grains, mixed with as 

 many ounces of human blood, warm from the veins, entirely 

 prevents a separation of serum and crassamentum, and the 

 whole mass continues in a state of fluidity similar to that in 

 which it is drawn, until, after some days, it putrifies.'' (Ban- 

 croft.) The poison affects chiefly the nervous system. Its 

 effect of destroying the vital functions is considerably quicker, 

 as I have found by experiments, if it be brought in contact 

 with a vein; and I am of opinion that no sure remedy is 

 known as yet to counteract its effect, if it have entered the 

 blood in sufficient quantity. I have seen the deer arrested 

 in his fleet course, wounded by the poisonous arrow ; I have 

 seen the tapir, while swimming across the Rupununi, so 

 slightly wounded that the spike had jtist penetrated through 

 the thick skin ; nevertheless it took effect, and the animal ex- 

 pired. Numerous are the birds of larger and smaller size 

 which I have seen thus secured. 



As much as I had heard of this fatal poison, I nevertheless 

 cannot abstain from noting the astonishment by which I was 

 seized when I saw it used for the first time. We travelled 

 over the savannahs girt by the Pacaraima mountains ; a deer 

 was discovered browsing in the high grass before us. Lieu- 

 tenant Haining, of the 65th regiment, my faithful travelling 

 companion, was too far behind with his gun for us to await 

 his coming up, and one of the Macusi Indians took a poisoned 



