232 War Poison of the Indians. 
substances that are known. Raleigh, toward the end of the six= 
teenth century, had heard the name of curare pronounced as 
being a vegetable substance, with which arrows were envenomed ; 
yet no fixed notions of this poison had reached Europe. The 
missionaries Gumilla and Gili had not been able to penetrate in- 
to the country where the curare is manufactured. Gumilla as- 
serts that this preparable was enveloped in great mystery ; that 
its principal ingredient was furnished by a subterraneous plant, 
by a tuberose root, which never puts forth leaves, and which is 
called the root by way of eminence, raiz de si misma; that the 
venomous exhalations, which arise from the pots, cause the old 
women (the most useless) to perish who are chosen to watch 
over this operation; finally, that these vegetable juices never 
appear sufficiently concentrated, till a few drops produce at a 
distance a repulsive action on the blood. An Indian wounds him- 
self slightly ; and a dart dipped in the liquid curare is held near 
the wound. If it make the blood return to the vessels without 
having been brought into contact with them, the poison is judged 
to be sufficiently concentrated. I shall not stop to refute these 
popular tales collected by Father Gumilla. 
When we artived at Esmeralda, the greater part of the In- 
dias were returning from an excursion which they had made to 
the east beyond the Rio Padamg, to gather juvias, or the fruit 
of the Bertholletia, anid the liana which yields the curare. Their 
return was celebrated by a festival, which is called in the Mission 
la fiesta de las juvius, ‘and which resembles our harvest, homes 
and vintage feasts. The women had prepared a quantity of fer- 
mented liquor, and during two days the Indians were in a state 
of intoxication. Among nations that attach great importance 
to the fruits of the palm-trees and of some others useful for the 
nourishment of man, the period when these fruits are gathered 
is marked by public rejoicings, and time is divided according to 
these festivals, which succeed one another in a course invariably 
the sawe. We were fortunate enough to find an old Indian less 
drunk than the rest, who was employed in preparing the curare 
poison from freshly gathered plants. He was the chemist of 
the place. We found at his dwelling large earthen pots for 
boiling vegetable juice, shallower vessels to favour the evaporation 
by a larger surface, and leaves of the plane-tree rolled up in the 
shape of our filters, and used to filtrate the liquors more or less 
loaded with fibrous matter. The greatest order and neatness 
prevailed in this hut, which was transformed into a chemical la- 
boratory. The Indian who was to instruct us, is known through- 
out the mission by the name of the master of poison (amo del 
curare): be had that self-sufficient air and tone of pedantry, of 
which the pharmacopolists of Europe were formerly eas uA I 
now,’ 
ae et) oe 
Bexiteeirge oo: 
