236 



CURARE POISON. 



liana which yields the curare. Their return was 

 celebrated by a festival, which lasted several days, 

 during which they were in a state of intoxication. 

 One less drunk than the rest was employed in pre- 

 paring the poison. He was the chymist of the place, 

 and boasted of his skill, extolling the composition as 

 superior to any thing that could be made in Europe. 

 The liana which yields it is named bejuco, and ap- 

 peared to be of the Strychnos family. The branches 

 are scraped with a knife, and the bark that comes off 

 is bruised, and reduced to very thin filaments on the 

 stone employed for grinding cassava. A cold infu- 

 sion 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, some- 

 what stronger, made of palm-leaves, the whole sup- 

 ported 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 kiraca- 

 guera. 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 re- 

 sembling tar, or thick syrup. The curare may be 

 tasted without danger ; for, like the venom of ser- 

 pents, it only acts when introduced directly into the 

 blood, and the Indians consider it as an excellent 

 stomachic. It is universally 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 



