58 
WANDERINGS IN 
FIRST 
JOURNEY 
quickest manner possible, you are sure to carry off 
some of the poison. Though three minutes generally 
elapse before the convulsions come on in the wounded 
bird, still a stupor evidently takes place sooner, and 
this stupor manifests itself by an apparent unwilling¬ 
ness in the bird to move. This was very visible in 
a dying fowl. 
Having procured a healthy full-grown one, a short 
piece of a poisoned blow-pipe arrow was broken off 
and run up into its thigh, as near as possible betwixt 
the skin and the flesh, in order that it might not be 
incommoded by the wound. For the first minute it 
walked about, but walked very slowly, and did not 
appear the least agitated. During the second minute 
it stood still, and began to peck the ground ; and ere 
half another had elapsed, it frequently opened and 
shut its mouth. The tail had now dropped, and 
the wings almost touched the ground. By the ter¬ 
mination of the third minute, it had sat down, scarce 
able to support its head, which nodded, and then 
recovered itself, and then nodded again, lower and 
lower every time, like that of a weary traveller slum¬ 
bering in an erect position; the eyes alternately open 
and shut. The fourth minute brought on convul¬ 
sions, and life and the fifth terminated together. 
The flesh of the game is not in the least injured by 
the poison, nor does it appear to corrupt sooner than 
that killed by the gun or knife. The body of this 
fowl was kept for sixteen hours, in a climate damp 
and rainy, and within seven degrees of the equator ; 
at the end of which time it had contracted no bad 
