EXPLANATOEY INDEX. 493 



water ; then soon were floating about quite dead. After an 

 interval of five minutes more, a single pacu showed its back 

 fin, and also tried to raise its head above water. An instant 

 more, and the whole place swarmed alive with large fish, pacu 

 and cartabac, all struggling and flapping at the surface or 

 whirling round and round. Many tried to force themselves 

 out of the water up the sloping surface of the rocks, and two 

 were successful in this, dying on the strand. From the 

 excited manner in which they struggled, it seemed to me as if 

 the poison had an intoxicating effect upon them. It might 

 have been that the contact of the poison with their gills had 

 produced a feeling of suffocation — hence their endeavours to 

 escape from their native element. 



" It was a most exciting scene for a time, as the Indians 

 shot arrow after arrow into the bewildered dying fish and 

 hunted them ashore or into the canoe. In about an hour the 

 murderous work was over, and 150 fine pacu and cartabac 

 were lying dead upon the rocks around the pool, the victims 

 of Indian prowess and poison. During the whole proceedings 

 I stood on the rocks at the upper end of the pool, and had a 

 fine view of the scene, the finest part of which was to see the 

 naked savage, in all his glory, drawing his bow with strength 

 and ease and letting fly his arrows with unerring aim." 



Another plant, called Konamie, is used for the same pur- 

 pose. It belongs to the Compositce. 



The " two bulbous plants" which supply the glutinous matter 

 I cannot identify. 



As to the red-pepper, ants, and snake-fangs, I do not believe 

 that they have any effect in strengthening the poison. When 

 rightly prepared, it has about the consistence of treacle, and 

 possesses a fragrant and penetrating odour peculiarly its own. 

 Although so deadly when it directly enters the blood, it is, 

 like the poison of snakes, harmless when swallowed. I have 

 tasted some with which Waterton furnished me, and found it 

 to be intensely bitter, with somewhat of a quassia-like aroma, 

 and that its taste was as unique as its smell. 



