wk, called the _huaco_,
picked up snakes for his principal food, and when bitten by one it flew
to the vejuco and ate some of the leaves. At length the Indians thought
of making the experiment on themselves, and when bitten by serpents they
drank the expressed juice of the leaves of the vejuco, and constantly
found that the wound was thereby rendered harmless. The use of this
excellent plant soon became general, and in some places the belief of
the preservative power of the vejuco juice was carried so far that men
in good health were inoculated with it. In this process some spoonfuls
of the expressed fluid are drunk, and afterwards some drops are put into
incisions made in the hands, feet, and breast. The fluid is rubbed into
the wounds by fresh vejuco leaves. After this operation, according to
the testimony of persons worthy of credit, the bite of the poisonous
snake fails for a long time to have any evil effect. Beside the two
plants mentioned above, many others are used with more or less
favourable results. The inhabitants of the montana also resort to other
means, which are too absurd to be detailed here: yet these medicines are
often of benefit, for their operation is violently reactive. They
usually produce the effect of repeated emetics and cause great
perspiration. There is much difference in the modes of external
treatment of the wound, and burning is often employed. I saw an Indian
apply to his wife's foot, which had been bitten, a plaster consisting of
moist gunpowder, pulverised sulphur, and finely-chopped tobacco mixed up
together. He laid this over the wounded part, and set fire to it. This
application in connexion with one of the nausea-exciting remedies taken
inwardly had a successful result.

An English officer, engaged in the wars which freed the South American
republics from the Spanish dominion, thus speaks of a plant which is
probably the same _Mikania_. His account is curiously confirmatory of
the accuracy of Bruce:--

"Among the many medicinal and poisonous plants growing on the banks of
the Orinoco, one of the most singular is a species of _vejuco_, which,
when properly administered, proves a powerful preservative from the
effects of poisonous serpents. It even appears to deprive these reptiles
either of their power or inclination to use their fangs. Some of the
leaves and small branches are pounded, and applied in that state as a
cataplasm to both arms; the skin having been previously scarified