62 
WANDERINGS IN 
FIRST 
JOURNEY 
Further 
remarks 
on the 
virulence 
of the 
poison. 
out of which he 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. 
