WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AJVIERICA 81 



effects ; may not the wild, untaught, unenlightened 

 savage of Guiana add an ingredient which, on ac- 

 count of the harm it does him, he fancies may be 

 useful to the perfection of his poison, though in 

 fact it be of no use at all? If a bone snatched 

 from the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought neces- 

 sary in incantation ; or if witchcraft have recourse 

 to the raiment of the owl, because it resorts to 

 the tombs and mausoleums of the dead, and wails 

 and hovers about at the time that the rest of ani- 

 mated nature sleeps; certainly the savage may 

 imagine that the ants, whose sting causes a fever, 

 and the teeth of the Labarri and Couanacouchi 

 snakes, which convey death in a very short space 

 of time, are essentially necessary in the composi- 

 tion of his poison ; and being once impressed with 

 this idea, he will add them every time he makes 

 the poison, and transmit the absolute use of them 

 to his posterity. The question to be answered 

 seems not to be, if it is natural for the Indians to 

 mix these ingredients, but, if they are essential to 

 make the poison. 



So much for the preparing of this vegetable 

 essence; terrible importer of death, into what- 

 ever animal it enters. Let us now see how it is 

 used; let us examine the weapons which bear it 

 to its destination, and take a view of the poor 

 victim, from the time he receives his wound till 

 death comes to his relief. 



Wlien a native of Macoushia goes in quest of 

 feathered game or other birds, he seldom carries 

 his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then 

 uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps 

 one of the greatest natural curiosities of Guiana. 



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