68 WANDERINGS IN 



FIRST 

 JOURNEY. 



Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the 

 " common weapons of destruction, has it in his 

 power to prepare a poison, by which he can 

 generally ensure to himself a supply of animal 

 food ; and the food so destroyed imbibes no 

 deleterious qualities. Nature has been bountiful 

 to him. She has not only ordered poisonous 

 herbs and roots to grow in the unbounded forests 

 through which he strays, but has also furnished 

 an excellent reed for his arrows, and another, still 

 more singular, for his blow-pipe ; and planted 

 trees of an amazing hard, tough, and elastic tex- 

 ture, out of which he forms his bows. And in 

 order that nothing might be wanting, she has 

 superadded a tree which yields him a fine wax, 

 and disseminated up and down, a plant not unlike 

 that of the pine-apple, which affords him capital 

 bow-strings. 



Having now followed the Indian in the chase, 

 and described the poison, let us take a nearer 

 view of its action, and observe a large animal 

 expiring under the weight of its baneful viru- 

 lence. 



Many have doubted the strength of the wou- 

 rali poison. Should they ever by chance read 

 what follows, probably their doubts on that score 

 will be settled for ever. 



Further re- In the former experiment on the dog, some 

 the viru- faint resistance on the part of nature was observed, 

 e as if existence struggled for superiority ; but in 



