]38 
WORARI POISON. 
arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek bone and broke off. The wild 
hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces from the 
place where he had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome 
supper. 
“ Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the common weapons of 
destruction, has it in his power to prepare a poison, by which he can gene- 
rally ensure to himself a supply of animal food ; and the food so destroyed 
imbibes no deleterious qualities. Nature has been bountiful to him. She 
has not only ordered poisonous herbs and roots to grow in the unbounded 
forests through which he strays, but has also furnished an excellent reed 
for his arrows, and another, still more singular, for his blow-pipe; and 
planted trees of an amazing hard, tough, and elastic texture, out of which 
lie forms his bows. And in order that nothing might be wanting, she has 
superadded a tree which yields him a fine wax, and disseminated up and 
down, a plant not unlike that of the pine-apple, which affords him capital 
bow-strings. 
“Having now followed the Indian in the chase, and described the poison, 
let us take a nearer view of its action, and observe a large animal expiring 
under the weight of its baneful virulence. 
“ Many have doubted the strength of the wourali poison. Should they 
ever by chance read what follows, probably their doubts on that score will 
be settled for ever. 
“ In the former experiment on the hog, some faint resistance on the part 
of nature was observed, as if existence struggled for superiority ; but in 
the following instance of the sloth, life sank in death without the least 
apparent contention, without a cry, without a struggle, and without a 
groan. This was an Ai, or three-toed-sloth. It was in the possession of a 
gentleman, who was collecting curiosities. He wished to have it killed, in 
order to preserve the skin, and the wourali poison was resorted to as the 
easiest death. 
“ Of all animals, not even the toad and tortoise excepted, this poor ill- 
formed creature is the most tenacious of life. It exists long after it has 
received wounds which would have destroyed any other animal ; and it 
may be said, on seeing a mortally wounded sloth, that life disputes with 
death every inch of flesh in its body. 
“The Ai was wounded in the leg, and put down on the floor, about two 
feet from the table ; it contrived to reach the leg of the table and fastened 
itself on it, as if wishful to ascend. But this was its last advancing step : 
life was ebbing fast, though imperceptibly; nor could this singular pro- 
duction of nature, which has been formed of a texture to resist death in a 
thousand shapes, make any stand against the wourali poison. 
“ First, one fore-leg let go its hold, and dropped down motionless by its 
side ; the other gradually did the same. The fore-legs having now lost 
their strength, the sloth slowly doubled its body, and placed its head 
betwixt its hind legs, which still adhered to the table ; but when the poison 
had affected these also, it sank to the ground, but sank so gently, that 
you could not distinguish the movement from an ordinary motion ; and had 
you been ignorant that it was wounded with a poisoned arrow, you would 
never have suspected that it was dying. Its mouth was shut, nor had any 
froth or saliva collected there. 
“ There was no subsultus tendinum, or any visible alteration in its 
breathing. During the tenth minute from the time it was wounded it 
stirred, and that was all ; and the minute after, life’s last spark went out. 
From the time the poison began to operate, you would have conjectured 
that sleep was overpowering it, and you would have exclaimed ‘ Pressitque 
jacentum, dulcis et alta quies, placidseque simillima morti.’ 
