132 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



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 nocturnse strigis," were neces- 

 sary 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 fumiga- 

 tion in his witch-work. 



If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense give way, 

 and believes, or allows himself to be persuaded, that cer- 

 tain substances and actions, in reality of no avail, possess 

 a virtue which renders them useful in producing the 

 wished-for effect; may not the wild, untaught, unen- 

 lightened savage of Guiana add an ingredient which, on 

 account 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 necessary 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 animated 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 com- 

 position 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 pos- 

 terity. 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 whatever 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 



