112 



WOURALI POISON WOUVERMANS. 



its name, and it is tne principal ingredient. When 

 be has procured enough of this, he digs up a root 

 of a very bitter taste, ties them together, and then 

 looks about for two kinds of bulbous plants, which 

 contain a green and glutinous juice. He fills a lit- 

 tle vessel, which he carries on his back, with the 

 stalks of these, and lastly, ranges up and down till 

 he finds two species of ants ; one of them is very 

 large and black, and so venomous, that its sting 

 produces a fever It is most commonly to be met 

 with on the ground. The other is a little red ant, 

 which stings like a nettle, and generally hag its nest 

 under the leaf of a shrub. After obtaining these, 

 he has no more need to range the forest. A quan- 

 tity of the strongest Indian pepper is used ; but 

 this he has already planted round his hut. The 

 pounded fangs of the Laharri snake, and those of 

 the Connacouchi, are likewise added. These he 

 commonly has in store ; for, when he kills a snake, 

 be generally extracts the fangs and keeps them by 

 him. Having thus found the necessary ingredients, 

 he scrapes the wourali vine and bitter root into 

 thin shavings, and puts them into a kind of colander 

 made of leaves ; this he holds over an earthen pot, 

 and pours water on the shavings ; the liquor which 

 comes through has the appearance of coffee. When 

 a sufficient quantity has been procured, the shavings 

 are thrown aside. He then bruises the bulbous 

 stalks, and squeezes a proportionate quantity of 

 their juice through his hands into the pot. Lastly, 

 the snake's fangs, ants, and pepper, are bruised and 

 thrown into it. It is then placed on a slow fire, 

 and as it boils, more of the juice of the wourali is 

 added, according as it may be found necessary, and 

 the scum is taken off with a leaf. It remains on the 

 fire till reduced to a thick scum of a deep brown 

 colour. As soon as it has arrived at this state, a 

 few arrows are poisoned with it to try its strength. 

 If it answer the expectations, it is poured out into 

 a calabash, or little pot of Indian manufacture, 

 which is carefully covered with a couple of leaves, 

 and over them a piece of deer's skin, tied round with 

 a cord. They keep it in the most dry part of the 

 hut, and from time to time suspend it over the 

 fire to counteract the effects of dampness. 



Among the instances adduced of the extraordi- 

 nary effects of wourali poison, Waterton mentions 

 the following: A large well-fed ox, from nine 

 hundred to a thousand pounds weight, was led to a 

 stake by a rope sufficiently strong to allow him to 

 move to and fro. In order to bring him down, 

 three poisoned arrows were put into him ; one was 

 sent into each thigh, just above the hock, in order 

 to avoid wounding a vital part, and a third was 

 shot traversely into the extremity of the nostril. 

 The poison seemed to take effect in four minutes. 

 Conscious as though he would fall, the ox set 

 himself firmly on his legs, and remained quite still 

 in the same place, till about the fourteenth min- 

 ute, when he smelled the ground, and appeared as 

 if inclined to walk. He advanced a pace or two, 

 staggered and fell, and remained extended on his 

 side, with his head on the ground. His eye, a few 

 minutes ago so bright and lively, now became fixed 

 and dim ; and though you put your hand close to 

 it as if to give him a blow there, he never closed 

 his eyelid. His legs were convulsed, and his head 

 from time to time started involuntarily; but he 

 never showed the least desire to raise it from the 

 ground. He breathed hard, and emitted foam from 

 his mouth. The startings, or subsaltus tendinum, 

 uow became gradually weaker and weaker ; his 



hinder parts were fixed in death ; and in a minute 

 or two more, his head and fore-leg ceased to stir. 

 Nothing now remained to show that life was still 

 within him, except that his heart faintly beat and 

 fluttered at intervals. In five-and-twenty minutes 

 from the time of his being wounded he was quite 

 dead. His flesh was very sweet and savoury at 

 dinner. 



WOUVERMANS, PHILIP, was born at Haer- 

 lem, in 1620, and was the son of Paul Wouver- 

 mans, a painter of history, of mean talents, who 

 taught him the rudiments of the art ; after which 

 he became the scholar of John Wynants, and arriv- 

 ed at such a degree of perfection as to be esteemed 

 superior to all his contemporaries. By the instruc- 

 tion and example of his master, the proficiency of 

 Wouvermans was very remarkable; but to the 

 knowledge of colouring and penciling which he ac- 

 quired in that school, he added the study of nature, 

 in which he employed himself with such critical 

 attention, as to excel his master in the choice of 

 his scenes, the excellence of his figures, and the 

 truth of his representations. The subjects of which 

 he seemed most particularly fond, were huntings, 

 hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers' shops, 

 and all kinds of scenes that afforded him a proper 

 and natural opportunity of introducing horses, which 

 he painted in the greatest perfection. In contem- 

 plating the works of this inimitable artist, we find 

 ourselves at a loss to determine what part is most 

 worthy of our applause and admiration ; whether 

 the sweetness of the colouring ; the correctness of 

 his design, his cattle, or his figures ; the charming 

 variety of attitudes in his horses ; the free and yet 

 delicate touch ings of his trees ; the beautiful 

 choice of his scenery ; the judicious use he makes 

 of the chiaro-oscuro ; or the spirit that ani- 

 mates the whole. His genius and invention were 

 so strong and lively, that none of his pictures have 

 either the same grounds or the same distances ; for 

 he varied them perpetually, with inexpressible 

 skill ; in some, representing simple, unembel- 

 lished nature, and in others, scenes enriched with 

 architecture, fountains, or edifices of a beautiful 

 construction. His figures are always finely drawn, 

 with expressions suitable to the subject; and 

 the attitudes he chose were such as appeared 

 unconstrained, natural, and perfectly agreeable. 

 He had an amazing command of his pencil, so that 

 he instantly and effectually expressed every idea 

 conceived in his mind, and gave to his pictures 

 an astonishing force, by broad masses of light and 

 shadow, which he contrasted with peculiar judg- 

 ment, and gave an uncommon degree of transparence 

 to the colouring of the whole. The pencil of 

 Wouvermans was mellow, and his touch was free. 

 Though his pictures were finished most delicately, 

 his distances recede with true perspective beauty ; 

 and his skies, and trees and plants are all exact and 

 lovely imitations of nature. In his latter time, his 

 pictures had rather too much of the grayish and 

 blue tint; but, in his best days, he was not inferior, 

 either in correctness, colouring or force, to any o f 

 the artists of Italy. Yet, notwithstanding his un- 

 common merit, he had not the good fortune, during 

 his life, to meet with encouragement equal to his 

 desert ; for, with all his assiduity and extreme in- 

 dustry, he found it difficult to maintain himself and 

 bis family. He seemed to be a stranger to the arti- 

 fices of the merchants, who therefore imposed on 

 him under the disguise of zeal for his interest, ai.d, 

 while they artfully enriched themselves by his 



