Scientific Intelligence, — Zoology, 369 



** No words can describe the pain/' should lie come in its way 

 and get a touch of its proboscis in his thumb. He feels it all over, 

 in the breast and arms especially, — thu agony is overpowering. After 

 fruitless attempts to totter homewards, ho swoons away on the road, — 

 and passes all next day in bed, with a smart fit of irritative fever. 

 These are a part only of the vermin and insect torments of Guiana ; — 

 wo must pass on referring curious readers to Mr Schomburgk's own 

 pages for notices of scorpions that lurk in the traveller's bedroom, — 

 vampire bats that nightly cup his great toe, and deadly snakes. 

 Trigonocephalus atrox we call one of the worst of these. His 

 fangs are fatal, unless you cut out the bitten part on the instant. 

 Have we not seen an Indian minus half of one foot, which he had 

 resolutely hacked off in such an emergency, and to our surprise, he 

 only limped a little after all ? 



Not alone such dangers shake the firm soul of a missionary of 

 science in Guiana. Harder trials, perhaps, than any of these, await 

 the man of delicate stomach, whom ethnological zeal and voluptuous 

 forms of brown " Indian Graces," invite to friendly sojourns in the 

 villages of Warrans, Arawaaks, or the gentle Macusis. They all 

 love an intoxicating drink called Paiwari, for the enjoyment of which 

 great festivals are held, — objects of the liveliest interest of course, to a 

 student of aboriginal humanity. But, alas ! the preparation of the 

 beverage, — consisting partly in an active chewing of cassada-bread, 

 which afterwards is left to ferment, is revolting to an unspeakable 

 degree. You cannot help seeing the nasty process, and every new 

 excitement of wonder and of expectation is turned into misery by 

 loathing reflections that, before long you must drink your share of 

 this beverage, the refusal of which would be the deadliest offence 

 that an Indian host could receive. The brown beauties, whom you 

 have but too well pleased with beads and bracelets, gratefully ply you 

 with bowls from the detestable tub, until reluctant nature can hold 

 no more, and " all joy is banished'' from the inquiring soul, in spite 

 of the wonder and drolleries of the motley scene and its novel cere- 

 monies, — by qualms of sickening disgust. Yet the reflective mind of 

 science is still on the alert, and does not fail to note that here at 

 least, the reproach of having taught the Indians the vice of drinking 

 is not justly chargeable on white men. The Paiwari is a "peculiar 

 domestic institution," much older than Cortez or Raleigh. 



If to its distresses we add the constant destruction ofHortus siccus, 

 skins, and other rarities, by mould and other damps, and sudden 

 decays, so that, of the collections so hardly gained, scarcely one spe- 

 cimen in three can at last be despatched across the Atlantic, it will 

 result, even from this partial sketch, that the path of science in 

 Guiana is not all hung with roses. So that more than common praise 

 is due to one who has pursued it with constant resolution and suc- 

 cess, in spite of those and other risks and troubles ; — of perilous 

 rapids to be mounted, — of going astray in pathless woods, where, 



VOL. L. NO. C. — APRIL 1851. 2 A 



