669 



When the Otoinacs of Uruana by the use of 

 niopo (of their arborescent tobacco) , and of fer- 

 mented liquors, have thrown themselves into a 

 state of intoxication, which lasts several days, 

 they kill one another without ostensibly fighting. 

 The most vindictive among them poison the nail 

 of their thumbs with curare ; and, according to 

 the testimony of the missionary, the mere im- 

 pression of this poisoned nail may become mor- 

 tal, if the curare be very active, and immediate- 

 ly mingle with the mass of the blood. When 

 the Indians, after a quarrel at night, commit a 

 murder, they throw the dead body into the 

 river, fearing that some manifest indications of 

 the violence exercised on the deceased might be 

 observed. " Every time," said father Bueno, 

 " that I see the women fetch water from a part 

 of the shore, to which they are not accustomed 

 to go for it, I suspect, that a murder has been 

 committed in my mission." 



We found in the Indian huts at Uruana the 

 same vegetable substance {touchwood of ants*), 



rum corpora in barbarorum naturam degenerasse videantur, 

 quum iidem ac barbari delectentur." We may see from this 

 passage, that they emitted the smoke through the nose ; but 

 at the court of Montezuma the pipe was held in one hand, 

 while the nostrils were stopped with the other, in order that 

 the smoke might be more easily swallowed. Life of Raleigh, 

 vol. i, p. 82. 



* Yesca de hormigas. 



