WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 139 



weapons of destruction, has it in his power to prepare a 

 poison, by which he can generally ensure to himself a 

 supply of animal food ; and the food so destroyed imbibes 

 no deleterious qualities. Nature has been bountiful to him. 

 She has not only ordered poisonous herbs and roots to grow 

 in the unbounded forests through which he strays, but has 

 also furnished an excellent reed for his arrows, and another, 

 still more singular, for his blow-pipe ; and planted trees of 

 an amazing hard, tough, and elastic texture, out of which 

 he forms his bows. And in order that nothing might be 

 wanting, she has superadded a tree which yields him 

 a tine wax, and disseminated up and down, a plant not 

 unlike that of the pine-apple, which affords him capital 

 bow-strings. 



