56 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



ar other coat, and is then dried again ; after this a third 

 coat, and sometimes a fourth. 



They take great care to put the poison on thicker 

 at the middle than at the sides, by which means the 

 spike retains the shape of a two-edged sword. It- 

 is rather a tedious operation to make one of these 

 arrows complete ; and as the Indian is not famed for 

 industry, except when pressed by hunger, he has hit 

 upon a plan of preserving his arrows which deserves 

 notice. 



About a quarter of an inch above the part where the 

 Coucourite spike is fixed into the square hole, he cuts 

 it half through ; and thus, when it has entered the 

 animal, the weight of the arrow causes it to break off 

 there, by which means the arrow falls to the ground 

 uninjured ; so that, should this be the only arrow he 

 happens to have with him, and should another shot 

 immediately occur, he has only to take another poisoned 

 spike out of his little bamboo box, fit it on his arrow, 

 and send it to its destination. 



Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the 

 hysena, he ranges through the forest in quest of the 

 wild beasts' track. No hound can act a surer part. 

 Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind his feet, 

 he observes the footsteps of the game, where an Euro- 

 pean eye could not discern the smallest vestige. He 

 pursues it through all its turns and windings with 

 astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns 

 his efforts. The animal, after receiving the poisoned 

 arrow, seldom retreats two hundred paces before it 

 drops. 



In passing overland from the Essequibo to the 

 Demerara, we fell in with a herd of wild hogs. Though 



