490 EXPLANATORY INDEX. 



while dwelling among them. Nor, as far as I know, has 

 any one failed with Waterton's poison. I made a few ex- 

 periments with some of it, and found that his account of it 

 was literally true. 



Death was not instantaneous, but the creature which was 

 wounded seemed to be immediately deprived of all wish to 

 move. On the spot it was wounded, there it remained, its 

 eyes giving no indication of sensitiveness when touched, and 

 its limbs gradually relaxing as if in sleep. Yet the poison 

 which I used had been preserved nearly forty years at Wal- 

 ton Hall, but it had been carefully kept from damp, which 

 injures, even if it does not destroy its powers. 



In his essay on the Monkey family, Waterton makes a 

 passing, but valuable remark on the Wourali : — 



" If you are in want of a tender monkey, a month old or so, 

 to boil for broth or to educate as a pet, your only chance of 

 success is to shoot the poor mother, but not with a fowling- 

 piece. Nine times out of ten the wounded mother would 

 stay in the clefts of the trees, where she would ultimately 

 perish with her progeny. An arrow, poisoned with Wourali, 

 is your surest weapon. 



" Take a good aim, and in a few minutes the monkey will 

 be lying dead at your feet. The Wourali poison totally 

 destroys all tension in the muscles. Now, a gun-shot wound, 

 even though it be mortal, has not such an immediate eflect. 



"Knowing this to be the case, whenever a monkey was 

 wanted, recourse was had to poisoned arrows. By this pre- 

 caution, the ill-fated animal's existence was not prolonged 

 under the painful anguish of a deadly wound. The Wourali 

 poison would act as a balmy soporific, and the victim would 

 be dead at your feet in a very short space of time." 



The necessity for some such poison is evident from the 

 fact that on account of the exuberant luxuriance of tropical 

 vegetation, a mortally wounded monkey, if only able to 

 traverse a couple of hundred yards, would be hopelessly lost, 

 and' whether the body remained wedged among the boughs or 



