War Poison of the Indians. 238 
know,” said he, “ that the whites have the secret of fabricating 
soap, and that black powder which has the effect of making a 
noise and killing animals, when they are wanted. The curare, 
which we prepare from father to son, is superior to anv thing vou 
‘can make down yonder (beyond sea). It is the j juice of an herb 
which kills silently (without any one knowing whence the stroke 
comes) .”” 
This chemical operation, to which the master of the curare 
attached so much importance, appears to us extremely simple. 
The liana (/ujuco), which is used at Esmeralda for the prepara- 
tion of the poison, bears the same name as in the forest of Javita, 
It is the bejuco de mavacure, which is gathered in’ abundance 
east of the Mission, on the left hank of the Oroonoko, beyond 
the Rio Amaguaca, in the mountains and granatic lands of Gua- 
nava and Yuiariquin. 
The j juice of the liana, when it has been recently gathered, is 
not regarded as poisonous ; perhaps it acts in a sensible manner 
only when it is strongly concentrated. It is the bark, and a par 
of the alburnum, which contains this terrible poison. Brarishes 
of the mavacure four or five lines in diameter, are scraped with a 
knife ; and the bark that comes off is bruised, and reduced into 
very thin filaments, on the ‘stone employed for grinding cassava. 
The venomous juice being yellow, the whole fibrous mass takes 
this colour. It is thrown into a funnel nine inches high, with an 
opening four inches wide. This funnel was, of all the instru- 
ments of the Indian laboratory, that eal the master of pot- 
_son seemed to be most proud. He asked us repeatedly, if por 
alla (down yonder, that is in Europe) we had ever seen any thing 
to be compared to his empudo. It was a leaf of a plantain tree 
rolled up in the form of a cone, and placed in another stronger 
cone made of the leaves of the palm-tree. The whole of this 
apparatus was supported by slight frame work made of the petioli 
and ribs of palm leaves. A ‘cold infusion is first prepared by 
pouring water on the fibrous matter, which is the ground bark of 
the mavacure. A vellowish water filters during several hours, 
drop by drop, through the leafy funnel. This filtered w ater 1s the 
venomous liquor, but it acquires strength only when it is concen- 
trated by evaporation, like molasses in a large earthen pot. 
The Indian frown time to time invited us to taste the liguid ;_ its 
taste, more or less bitter, decides when the concentration by fire 
has been carried sufficiently far. There is no danger in this ope- 
ration, the curare being deleterious only when it comes into im- 
mediate contact with the blood. The vapours, therefore, that 
are disengaged from the pans, are not hurtful, notwithstanding 
what has been asserted on this point by the Missionaries of the 
Oroonoko. Fontana, in his fine experiments on the poison of the 
Vol. ag: No. 281. Sept, 1821. Gg ticunas 
