SOUTH AMERICA. 59 



ungenteelly by an enraged spirit, solely because 

 he had forgotten a fumigation in his witch-work. 



If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense 

 give way, and believes, or allows himself to be 

 persuaded, that certain substances and actions, 

 in reality of no avail, possess a virtue which 

 renders them useful in producing the wished for 

 effect; may not the wild, untaught, unenlightened 

 savage of Guiana, add an ingredient which, on 

 account of the harm it does him, he fancies may 

 be useful to the perfection of his poison, though 

 in fact it be of no use at all ? If a bone snatched 

 from the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought 

 necessary in incantation ; or if witchcraft have 

 recourse to the raiment of the owl, because it 

 resorts to the tombs and mausoleums of the dead, 

 and wails and hovers about at the time that the 

 rest of animated nature sleeps ; certainly the 

 savage may imagine that the ants, whose sting 

 causes a fever, and the teeth of the Labarri and 

 Counacouchi snakes, which convey death in a 

 very short space of time, are essentially necessary 

 in the composition of his poison ; and being once 

 impressed with this idea, he will add them every 

 time he makes the poison, and transmit the ab- 

 solute use of them to his posterity. The question 

 to be answered seems not to be, if it is natural 

 for the Indians to mix these ingredients, but, 

 if they are essential to make the poison. 



So much for the preparing of this vegetable 



