44 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



sufficient proof. The following short story points out 

 the necessity of a cautious examination. 



One day, on asking an Indian if he 

 thought the poison would kill a man, he 

 replied, that they always go to battle with it ; that 

 he was standing by when an Indian was shot with a 

 poisoned arrow, and that he expired almost immedi- 

 ately. Not wishing to dispute this apparently satisfac- 

 tory information, the subject was dropped. However, 

 about an hour after, haying purposely asked him in 

 what part of the body the said Indian was wounded, he 

 answered without hesitation, that the arrow entered 

 betwixt his shoulders, and passed quite through his 

 heart. Was it the weapon, or the strength of the 

 poison, that brought an immediate dissolution in this 

 case 1 Of course the weapon. 



The second have been misled by disappoinment, 

 caused by neglect in keeping the poisoned arrows, or 

 by not knowing how to use them, or by trying inferior 

 poison. If the arrows are not kept dry, the poison 

 loses its strength, and in wet or damp weather it turns 

 mouldy, and becomes quite soft. In shooting an arrow 

 in this state, upon examining the place where it has 

 entered, it will be observed that, though the arrow has 

 penetrated deep into the ilesh, still by far the greatest 

 part of the poison has shrunk back, and thus, instead 

 of entering with the arrow, it has remained collected at 

 the mouth of the wound. In this case the arrow might 

 as well have not been poisoned. Probably, it was to 

 this that a gentleman, some time ago, owed his disap- 

 pointment, w T hen he tried the poison on a horse in the 

 town of Stabroek, the capital of Demerara ; the horse 

 never betrayed the least symptom of being affected by it. 



