196 ON THE MILK-SAP 



dients of which are furnished by the juice of a plant 

 belonging here (Echites suberecta), and the bark of another, 

 likewise an Apocynaceous tree, Strychnos guianensis, 

 Mart, and Str. toxifera, Schomb.) Schomburgk has 

 recently given us a highly poetical Description of the pre- 

 paration of this poison in the valuable Reports of his 

 Travels, which hitherto, unfortunately, have only appeared 

 in fragments in particular journals. 



Poppig during his romantic wanderings in South Ame- 

 rica, had often an opportunity of becoming acquainted 

 with the frightful action of the Wourari. A large, long 

 reed is hollowed out by the Indians, and very carefully 

 polished. The arrows, about a foot long, are cut out of 

 very hard wood ; the point is dipped in the poison, and the 

 other end wrapped round with cotton, so as exactly to fill 

 the tube. Armed with this fearful weapon, the savage 

 steals upon the unoffending foe, who is perhaps busy pre- 

 paring a dainty meal from the newly killed deer. No 

 rustling nose betrays the practised foot that comes gliding 

 on ; no eye perceives, through the dense thicket, the deadly 

 reed from which, impelled by a strong puff alone, the 

 winged messenger of death noislessly and surely reaches, 

 even at a distance of thirty paces, the unwarned and 

 defenceless victim, who, from the slightest wound, in a few 

 minutes expires in convulsions. 



The North Americans also use an Apocynaceous plant 

 (Gonolobium macrophyllum, Mich.) to poison their arrows; 

 and Mungo Park related the like of the Mandingoes of the 

 Niger, (according to him it is a species of Echites). 



Many other allied plants are among the most active 

 poisons (Cerbera Thevetia, and C. Ahovai), and the seeds 

 of this group, in particular, are almost more remarkable 

 for their deadliness than those of the foregoing, for two 



