( 290 ) 



Mr. Herijjant declares that he was 

 told by Mr. de la Condamine, that the 

 Indians committed the care of boiling 

 the Arrow-poifon to a criminal woman, 

 and that the time of her death was an 

 indication of its being fufficiently boiled. 

 Bui in this particular Mr. de la Conda*- 

 mine was, doubtlefs, impofed upon, as 

 it has all the air of a fable, and as the 

 Lidians here evaporate it in open air* 

 without the leaft danger ? till it acquires 

 a due confidence, which is all that is 

 propofed, and is eafily difcovered, with- 

 out the death of an old woman. The 

 lymptoms which Mr. Herijjant per- 

 ceived, might indeed happen by hard 

 boiling, which the Lidians avoid, and 

 in a fmall clofet, where the fteam, raifed 

 by an unneceffary degree of heat, was 

 confined, and received into the lungs. 



* Vide Philofophical Tranfafiions y vol. xlvii; 

 P a g- 75- 



The 



