y has yet been discovered
that will cure it. Death is certain, and a death similar to that caused
by the bite of a venomous serpent. So say those who have suffered from
it, but recovered on account of their having been only slightly wounded,
or lightly inoculated with it. Let us see, then, how Guapo prepared this
deadly mixture.

He had gone out to the forest, and returned carrying a bundle of slender
rods. They were pieces of a lliana, or creeping plant. It was the
_bejuco de curare_, or "mavacure," as it is sometimes called. The leaves
he had stripped off, and left behind as useless. Had he brought them
with him, they would have been seen to be small leaves of an oblong-oval
shape, sharp at the points, and of a whittish-green colour. Don Pablo
knew the plant to be a species of _Strychnos_.

Guapo with his knife first scraped all the bark, as well as the alburnum
or white coating, from the rods, which last he flung away. The mixture
of bark and alburnum was next placed upon a smooth stone, and mashed
into a fibre of a yellowish colour. This done, it was gathered into a
heap, and placed within a funnel, which had already been made out of a
plantain-leaf. The funnel was a long narrow cone, and to strengthen it,
it was set within another funnel made of the thick leaf of the "bussu"
palm, and then both were supported by a framework of palm fibres.

Underneath the apex was placed a small pan--which could afterwards be
put over the fire--and then cold water was thrown into the funnel along
with the bark. A yellowish liquid soon commenced to filter and drip into
the pan, and this liquid was the _curare_, the arrow poison. It still
required, however, to be concentrated by evaporation; and for this
purpose the pan was transferred to a slow fire, where it was kept until
the liquid became thickened by the heat.

Another process was yet required before the curare was ready for the
arrows. It was sufficiently concentrated and deadly, but still too thin
to adhere properly to their tips, and for this purpose a mixture of some
gummy juice was necessary. This Guapo soon prepared from the large
leaves of a tree called the "kiracaguero," and poured it into the
infusion; and then the curare turned from its yellow colour to black,
and was ready for use. The change of colour was produced by the
decomposition of a hydruret of carbon; the hydrogen was burned, and the
carbon set free.

Guapo now dipped a few of his arrows, and carefully d