54 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



run up into its thigh, as near as possible betwixt the 

 shin and the flesh, in order that it might not be in- 

 commoded by the wound. For the first minute it 

 walked about, but walked very slowly, and did not 

 appear the least agitated. During the second minute it 

 stood still, and began to peck the ground ; and ere half 

 another had elapsed, it frequently opened and shut its 

 mouth. The tail had now dropped, and the wings 

 almost touched the ground. By the termination of 

 the third minute it had sat down, scarce able to support 

 its head, which nodded, and then recovered itself, and 

 then nodded again, lower and lower every time, like 

 that of a weary traveller slumbering in an erect posi- 

 tion ; the eyes alternately open and shut. The fourth 

 minute brought on convulsions, and life and the fifth 

 terminated together. 



The flesh of the game is not m the least injured by 

 the poison, nor does it appear to corrupt sooner than 

 that killed by the gun or knife. The body of this fowl 

 was kept for sixteen hours^ in a climate damp and rainy, 

 and within seven degrees of the equator ; at the end of 

 which time it had contracted no bad smell w^hatever, 

 and there were no symptoms of putrefaction, saving 

 that, just round the wound, the flesh appeared some- 

 what discoloured. 



The Indian, on his return home, carefully suspends 

 his blow-pipe from the top of his spiral roof ; seldom 

 placing it in an oblique position, lest it should receive a 

 cast. 



Here let the blow-pipe remain suspended, while you 

 take a view of the arms which are made to slay the 

 larger beasts of the forest. 



When the Indian intends to chase the peccari, or 



