n lasts. The pot in which it is boiled
must be a new one, and must never have held anything before, otherwise
the poison would be deficient in strength: add to this that the operator
must take particular care not to expose himself to the vapour which
arises from it while on the fire.

Though this and other precautions are taken, such as frequently washing
the face and hands, still the Indians think that it affects the health;
and the operator either is, or, what is more probable, supposes himself
to be, sick for some days after.

Thus it appears that the making the wourali-poison is considered as a
gloomy and mysterious operation; and it would seem that they imagine it
affects others as well as him who boils it; for an Indian agreed one
evening to make some for me, but the next morning he declined having
anything to do with it, alleging that his wife was with child!

Here it might be asked, are all the ingredients just mentioned necessary,
in order to produce the wourali-poison? Though our opinions and
conjectures may militate against the absolute necessity of some of them,
still it would be hardly fair to pronounce them added by the hand of
superstition, till proof positive can he obtained.

We might argue on the subject, and, by bringing forward instances of
Indian superstition, draw our conclusion by inference, and still remain
in doubt on this head. You know superstition to be the offspring of
ignorance, and of course that it takes up its abode amongst the rudest
tribes of uncivilised man. It even too often resides with man in his
more enlightened state.

The Augustan age furnishes numerous examples. A bone snatched from the
jaws of a fasting bitch, and a feather from the wing of a
night-owl,--"ossa ab ore rapta jejunae canis, plumamque nocturnae
strigis,"--were necessary for Canidia's incantations. And in aftertimes,
Parson Evans, the Welshman, was treated most ungenteelly by an enraged
spirit, solely because he had forgotten a fumigation in his witch-work.
If, then, enlightened man lets his better sense give way, and believes,
or allows himself to be persuaded, that certain substances and actions,
in reality of no avail, possess a virtue which renders them useful in
producing the wished-for effect; may not the wild, untaught,
unenlightened savage of Guiana, add an ingredient which, on account of
the harm it does him, he fancies may be useful in the perfection of his
poison, though, in fact, it be of no