80 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



it affects others as well as him who boils it; for 

 an Indian agreed one evening to make some for 

 me, but the next morning he declined having any- 

 thing to do with it, alleging that his wife was with 

 child! 



Here it might be asked, are all the ingredients 

 just mentioned necessary, in order to produce the 

 wourali-poison? Though our opinions and con- 

 jectures may militate against the absolute neces- 

 sity of some of them, still it would be hardly fair 

 to pronounce them added by the hand of supersti- 

 tion, till proof positive can be obtained. 



We might argue on the subject, and, by bring- 

 ing forward instances of Indian superstition, draw 

 our conclusion by inference, and still remain in 

 doubt on this head. You know superstition to be 

 the offspring of ignorance, and of course that it 

 takes up its abode amongst the rudest tribes of 

 uncivilized man. It even too often resides with 

 man in his more enlightened state. 



The Augustan age furnishes numerous exam- 

 ples. A bone snatched from the jaws of a fasting 

 bitch, and a feather from the wing of a night owl, 

 — "ossa ab ore rapta jejunae canis, plumamque 

 nocturnge strigis," — were necessary for Canidia's 

 incantations. And in aftertimes, parson Evans, 

 the Welshman, was treated most ungenteelly by 

 an enraged spirit, solely because he had forgotten 

 a fumigation in his witch-work. 



If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense 

 give way, and believes, or allows himself to be 

 persuaded, that certain substances and actions, 

 in reality of no avail, possess a virtue which ren- 

 ders them useful in producing the wished-for 



