use at all? If a bone snatched from
the jaws of a fasting bitch be thought necessary in incantation; or if
witchcraft have recourse to the raiment of the owl, because it resorts to
the tombs and mausoleums of the dead, and wails and hovers about at the
time that the rest of animated nature sleeps; certainly the savage may
imagine that the ants, whose sting causes a fever, and the teeth of the
labarri and counacouchi snakes, which convey death in a very short space
of time, are essentially necessary in the composition of his poison; and
being once impressed with this idea, he will add them every time he makes
the poison, and transmit the absolute use of them to his posterity. The
question to be answered seems not to be if it is natural for the Indians
to mix these ingredients, but if they are essential to make the poison.

So much for the preparing of this vegetable essence--terrible importer of
death into whatever animal it enters. Let us now see how it is used; let
us examine the weapons which bear it to its destination, and take a view
of the poor victim, from the time he receives his wound till death comes
to his relief.

When a native of Macoushia goes in quest of feathered game or other
birds, he seldom carries his bow and arrows. It is the blow-pipe he then
uses. This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps, one of the greatest
natural curiosities of Guiana. It is not found in the country of the
Macoushi. Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-west of
them, in the wilds which extend betwixt them and the Rio Negro. The reed
must grow to an amazing length, as the part the Indians use is from ten
to eleven feet long, and no tapering can be perceived in it, one end
being as thick as the other. It is of a bright yellow colour, perfectly
smooth both inside and out. It grows hollow; nor is there the least
appearance of a knot or joint throughout the whole extent. The natives
call it ourah. This, of itself, is too slender to answer the end of a
blow-pipe; but there is a species of palma, larger and stronger, and
common in Guiana, and this the Indians make use of as a case, in which
they put the ourah. It is brown, susceptible of a fine polish, and
appears as if it had joints five or six inches from each other. It is
called samourah, and the pulp inside is easily extracted, by steeping it
for a few days in water.

Thus the ourah and samourah, one within the other, form the blow-pipe of
Guiana. T