58 WANDERINGS IN 



FIRST Thus it appears that the making the wourali 



JOURNEY. 



poison is considered as a gloomy and mysterious 



Indian su- r 



operation ; and it would seem that they imagine 

 it affects others as well as him who boils it ; for 

 an Indian agreed one evening to make some for 

 me, but the next morning he declined having any 

 thing to do with it, alleging that his wife was 

 with child ! 



Here it might be asked, are all the ingredients 

 just mentioned necessary, in order to produce the 

 wourali poison ? Though our opinions and con- 

 jectures may militate against the absolute ne- 

 cessity of some of them, still it would be hardly 

 fair to pronounce them added by the hand of 

 superstition, till proof positive can be obtained. 



We might argue on the subject, and by bring- 

 ing forward instances of Indian superstition, 

 draw our conclusion by inference, and still remain 

 in doubt on this head. You know superstition 

 to be the offspring of ignorance, and of course 

 that it takes up its abode amongst the rudest 

 tribes of uncivilized man. It even too often 

 resides with man in his more enlightened state. 



The Augustan age furnishes numerous ex- 

 amples. A 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 nocturnae strigis," were necessary 

 for Canidia's incantations. And in aftertimes, 

 parson Evans, the Welshman, was treated most 



