70 WANDERINGS IN 



FIKST adhered to the table ; but when the poison had 



JOURNEY. 



affected these also, it sunk to the ground, but 

 sunk so gently, that you could not distinguish the 

 movement from an ordinary motion ; and had you 

 been ignorant that it was wounded with a poisoned 

 arrow, you would never have suspected that it 

 was dying. Its mouth was shut, nor had any 

 froth or saliva collected there. 



There was no subsultus tendinum, or any 

 visible alteration in its breathing. During the 

 tenth minute from the time it was wounded it 

 stirred, and that was all ; and, the minute after, 

 life's last spark went out. From the time the 

 poison began to operate, you would have con- 

 jectured that sleep was overpowering it, and you 

 would have exclaimed, " Pressitque jacentem, 

 dulcis et alta quies, placidaeque simillima morti." 



There are now two positive proofs of the effect 

 of this fatal poison ; viz. the death of the dog, 

 and that of the sloth. But still these animals 

 were nothing remarkable for size ; and the 

 strength of the poison in large animals might yet 

 be doubted, were it not for what follows. 

 Experi- A. large well-fed ox, from nine hundred to a 



ment upon 



an ox. thousand pounds weight, was tied to a stake by a 

 rope sufficiently strong to allow him to move to 

 and fro. Having no large Coucourite spikes at 

 hand, it was judged necessary, on account of his 

 superior size, to put three wild-hog arrows into 

 him ; one was sent into each thigh just above the 



