and the Plant from which it is extracted. 415 



traded his promise, and refused to prepare it in my presence. 

 However, the bark was in my keeping, and as I had jjaid for 

 it, I considered myseh' to have a full right to it ; and although 

 he demanded it back, it was now my tvn'n to refuse him. 

 We were at that period so near our departure for Fort San 

 Joaquim, that I was })revented from engaging a more willing 

 concocter, and with the pure bark in my possession we de- 

 parted. 



The dreary " winter season,^' as the time when the tropical 

 rains descend in torrents is called by the Brazilians, gave me 

 sufficient leisure to enter into further inquiries with regard to 

 this poison, and I resolved to make some experiments how 

 far the pure bark of the Urari plant, Strychnos tox'ifera, un- 

 mixed with any other substance, might prove fatal to animal 

 life. I took, thei'efore, two pounds of the bark shavings, and 

 having poured a gallon of water on it, allowed it to remain in 

 that state for twenty-four hours. Half of it was filtered off, 

 and keeping a steady but gentle coal fire, it was boiled in a 

 new pot, adding from time to time more of the infusion. 

 After having concentrated it by boiling to the consistence of 

 thin s}Tup, and having allowed it to cool, two arrows were 

 poisoned with this substance, and two fowls wounded, one in 

 the thigh and the other in the neck. The effects became 

 apparent after five minutes : the first died in twenty-seven 

 minutes after the wound had been inflicted ; and the latter, 

 which had been wounded in the neck, after twenty-eight 

 minutes. The gentleman who accompanied me on my expe- 

 dition, and Senhor Pedro Ayres, who had been sent by the 

 commander of the district to welcome us at the Brazilian 

 boundary', were present during these experiments, and it is 

 therefore established beyond douljt, that the Urari plant alone, 

 without any assistance of Indian charlatanism, or the addition 

 of extraneous substances not likely to add to its efficacy, pro- 

 duces the fatal effect. The boiling process was finished in 

 less than seven hours, while the Indians employ more than 

 forty-eight hours for that purpose ; and as it required a period 

 rather longer to produce death in the fowls wounded with it 

 than would have been necessary with good Macusi poison, 

 this must be ascribed to our decoction being not sufficiently 

 concentrated. The poison which I had thus prepared was of 

 a brownish colour : good Macusi poison is jet-black, and I 

 have no doubt that it receives this appearance from one of the 

 ingredients which the Indians add to it. 



When I left Pirara, foiled in my purpose to see the poison 

 prepared by the Macusi, I arranged with the Rev. Thomas 

 Yond, who laboured then as missionary of the episcopalian 



