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274 CURARE POISON: 
thin filaments on the stone employed for grinding 
cassava. A cold infusion is prepared by pouring 
water on this fibrous mass, in a funnel made of a 
plantain-leaf rolled up in the form of a cone, and 
placed in another somewhat stronger made of palm- 
leaves, the whole supported by a slight framework. 
A yellowish fluid filters through the apparatus. It 
is the venomous liquor ; which, however, acquires 
strength only when concentrated by evaporation in 
a large earthen pot. To give it consistence, it is 
mixed with a glutinous vegetable juice, obtained 
from a tree named kiracaguera. At the moment 
when this addition is made to the fluid, now kept 
in a state of ebullition, the whole blackens, and 
coagulates into a substance resembling tar or thick 
syrup. The curare may be tasted without danger ; 
for, like the venom of serpents, it only acts when in- 
troduced directly into the blood, and the Indians 
consider it as an excellent stomachic. It is univer- 
sally employed by them in hunting, the tips of 
their arrows being covered with it ; and the usual 
mode of killing domestic fowls is to scratch the skin 
with one of these infected weapons. Other species of 
vegetable poison are manufactured in various parts 
of Guiana. | 
After seeing this composition prepared, the phi- 
losophers accompanied the artist to the festival of 
the juvias. In the hut where the revellers were as- 
sembled, large roasted monkeys blackened by smoke 
were ranged against the wall. Humboldt imagines 
that the habit of eating animals so much resembling 
man has in some degree contributed to diminish the 
horror of anthropophagy among savages. Apes when 
thus cooked, and especially such as have a very 
