66  CHINESE  POISONS. 
by  fumigators.  It  is  assumed  that  you  are  wide  awake  at  the 
time,  for,  if  you  are  caught  napping,  there  is  no  remedy.  In 
the  first  place  then,  take  care  that  you  do  not  bawl  out.  Shut 
your  mouth.  Hold  your  breath.  Rush  at  the  intruder — seize 
his  tail  in  your  left  hand,  and  with  the  thumb  and  index  finger 
of  the  right,  lay  hold  of  his  nose,  just  above  the  alae,  with  a 
firm  grip,  and  a  bolus  will  plump  out  of  each  nostril,  with  which 
you  are  to  plug  your  own  nasal  passage  (do  not  be  fastidious) 
and  you  may  then  commence  breathing  (your  mouth  still  closed,) 
for  these  medicated  pledgets  possess  the  property  of  decompos- 
ing the  somnolent  gas.  If  successful  in  these  manipulations, 
you  will  have  the  gratification  of  seeing  your  foe  gasp  and 
tumble  over,  hors  de  combat,  into  the  pit  he  had  prepared  for 
you.  Allusions  are  often  made  to  a  mysterious  and  extremely 
virulent  poison  taken  by  men  of  high  rank  when  on  the  eve  of 
execution :  it  is  derived,  according  to  vulgar  belief,  from  a  pro- 
tuberance on  the  head  of  a  species  of  stork.  Whatever  the 
agent  may  be,  it  is  unquestionably  one  of  great  potency.  An 
officer,  who  was  eye-witness  to  the  decapitation  of  the  venerable 
and  lamented  General  Yu  Tsien,  informs  us  that,  when  the  vic- 
tim of  Manchu  malignancy  was  led  out  to  slaughter,  something 
was  placed  on  the  tip  of  his  tongue,  which,  without  the  infliction 
of  pain,  rendered  him  insensible  in  less  than  half  an  hour. 
Friendly  mandarins  then  retained  his  moribund  frame  in  an  erect 
posture  to  receive  the  painless  death-blow. 
Nearly  all  the  vegetable  and  mineral  poisons  known  in  the 
West  are  found  in  China,  and  have  been  employed  for  homicidal 
or  suicidal  purposes.  Laurel  water,  hemlock,  hyoscyamus,  bella- 
donna, stramonium,  nux  vomica,  and  a  long  list  of  other  indi- 
genous plants,  known  and  unknown,  are  always  at  hand,  though 
not  often  employed,  owing  to  the  facility  of  obtaining  opium. 
Dogs  are  often  poisoned  by  thieves  by  giving  them  rice  in  which 
nux  vomica  has  been  boiled.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  practice 
for  countrymen  to  throw  an  infusion  of  croton  tiglium  into  a 
pond,  a  mode  of  fishing  made  easy  : — the  morning  following  the 
operation  every  fish  is  found  floating  on  the  surface,  dead.  They 
are  then  taken  to  market,  but,  though  somewhat  insipid,  are  in- 
noxious. Some  species  of  fish  found  on  the  coast  are  intensely 
poisonous,  as  of  course  are  several  kinds  of  mushrooms,  which, 
