146 THE GREAT CATAEACTS OF THE OEINOCO. 



anointed with diluted curare, and instantly ifpon the fall 

 of his prize fills its mouth with salt, which soon restores 

 the animal unharmed. 



The manufacture of curare is known to hut compara- 

 tively few, the Indians of the Cassiquiare and Upper Rio 

 Negro being the principal producers for all the neigh- 

 boring regions. The virulent principle it contains is ex- 

 tracted from the bark of henjuco de mavacure {Strychnos 

 toxifera), a vine abundant in the forests of the districts 

 where the curare is made. When prepared, it has the 

 color and consistence of tar, and is sold in small cala- 

 bashes at an exorbitant price. It is an interesting fact 

 that this concentrated juice of the mavacure, which is so 

 deadly when introduced into the circulation, has been 

 found to be a specific for that other powerful poison, 

 strychnine, whose pernicious effects are so difficult to 

 counteract. 



The other weapons of the natives, besides the cerba- 

 tana, are bows and arrows, in the construction of which 

 they exhibit no little taste and ingenuity. The bow is 

 generally from five to six feet long, and made from a hard, 

 black, elastic wood, with a string woven from the fibres of 

 the palm-leaf. The arrows, from five to seven feet in 

 length, consist of a light reed, in one extremity of which 

 is inserted a head about a foot long, made of hard wood, 

 with the point dipped in curare ; the other extremity is 

 winged with feathers arranged spirally so as to produce a 

 rotary motion, thus exhibiting an acquaintance with prin- 

 ciples applied among civilized nations. The question is 

 naturally suggested. Is this contrivance, for giving direct- 

 ness and effectiveness to missiles, an invention of civiliza- 

 tion, or must it be recorded as an achievement of barba- 

 rism, developed and impi'oved by modern genius ? The 

 arrow employed for the capture of turtles, during the 

 season when they do not appear upon the playas, differs 



