and the Plant jfj'om which it is extracted. 417 



of the Urary is poured by degrees through the small funnel, after it 

 has been brought to the consistency of thin starch. As soon as all 

 things were set in order, and the wood split up in readiness for 

 making the fire, the man set off in search of I could not conceive 

 what, and therefore I asked one standing near me why the man had 

 gone away. He said, ' He is gone to fetch his tinder-box, to make 

 fire, for he will not take a light from any person's fire ; you will see 

 he will make his own.' I waited awhile, and then he came with a 

 tinder-box and steel in his hand. I looked at the box and tinder, 

 to see if there M'as anj'thing remarkable in it, but found it to be 

 simply a roll of loose cotton wound round with thread, about an 

 inch in diameter, and seven in length, having for its case a piece of 

 bamboo of the same length, which aids in protecting the cotton from 

 getting damp, and also serves as an extinguisher to the burning 

 tinder when put downwards in the bamboo-case. Mulatto then took 

 his red flint-stone, such as the Indians commonly use, which is found 

 in some of the distant mountains, and seems to be just as good 

 as our flint-stone at home for such a purpose*, and struck several 

 times, but the cotton having by some means got rather damp, he 

 could not succeed in getting a light : he then went to my kitchen 

 and lighted his cotton-roller. Now I thought I should find that he 

 would make his fire from this burning tinder, that had certainly got 

 its spark from my kitchen fire ; but no, instead of this he pushed it 

 into his bamboo extinguisher, and let it remain there until every 

 spark was put out. He then struck a light from his own flint, and 

 so began making a fire. Other fire than that made by the Urary- 

 maker is not allowed to come under the roof of the Urary-house, lest 

 the whole should be defiled. Neither may any water be used in 

 drawing or cooking the Urary but that which is procured by the 

 Urary-maker, and even that must not be put in any vessel, save his 

 own sacred goblets. 



" Mulatto began boiling the Urary about eleven on Friday the 

 19th of September, 1838. The ingredients used are as follows : — 



Uraryt bark from a vine 2 lbs. 



Arimam barkj, vine ^ — 



Tarireng J- — 



Yakkee i — 



Wokarimo ^ — 



Tararemu i oz., from the root of the Tarireng vine | oz. 

 Muramu§, a bulbous root, not boiled, but soaked 

 in the half-cooked Urary, and the slime is 

 squeezed from it, to congeal the whole . . 1^ lb. 

 Manuca||, the bark of a large tree, four small nieces. 



* The red flint-stone here alluded to is compact quartz (jasper), which is 

 found in the vicinity of Moiuit Roraima, and along the banks of the rivers 

 Coko and Cukenani. — S. 



f Urari, or Strychnos toxifera, Schonib. — S. 



X Arimavu, Slrychnos cogens, Bentham. — S. 



§ Muramu, a species of Cissus, I brought some of these I'oots with me, 

 which have been planted with success at Messrs. Loddiges and sons, and at 

 the Botanic Garden in Berlin. — S. 



II Manuca, or Manica, an intensely bitter bark of a tree wliich I conceive 

 Ann. ^- Mag. N. Hist. Vol. vii. 2 E 



