I 



520 



is concentrated by evaporation, like melasses, in 

 a large earthen pot. The Indian from time to 

 time invited us to taste the liquid ; it's taste, 

 more or less bitter, decides when the concentra- 

 tion by fire has been carried sufficiently far. ' 

 There is no danger in this operation,the curare be- 

 ing deleterious only when it comes into immediate 

 contact with the blood. The vapors therefore, 

 that are disengaged from the pans, are not 

 hurtful, notwithstanding what has been asserted 

 on this point by the missionaries of the Oroonoko. 

 Fontana, in bis fine experiments on the poison of 

 the ticunas of the river of Amazons, long ago 

 proved, that the vapours rising from this poison, 

 when thrown on burning charcoal, may be in- 

 haled without apprehension ; and that it is false 

 as M. de La Condamine has announced, that 

 Indian women, when condemned to death, have 

 been killed by the vapours of the poison of the 

 ticunas. 



The most concentrated juice of the mavacure 

 is not thick enough to stick to the darts. It is 

 therefore only to give a body to the poison, that 

 another vegetable juice, extremely glutinous, 

 drawn from a tree with large leaves, called 

 kiracaguero, is poured into the concentrated in- 

 fusion. As this tree grows at a great distance 

 from Esmeralda, and was at that period as 

 destitute of flowers and fruits as the bejuco de 

 mavacure, we could not determine it botani- 



