had sat down, scarce able to support
its head, which nodded, and then recovered itself, and then nodded again,
lower and lower every time, like that of a weary traveller slumbering in
an erect position; the eyes alternately open and shut. The fourth minute
brought on convulsions, and life and the fifth terminated together.

The flesh of the game is not in the least injured by the poison, nor does
it appear to corrupt sooner than that killed by the gun or knife. The
body of this fowl was kept for sixteen hours, in a climate damp and
rainy, and within seven degrees of the equator; at the end of which time
it had contracted no bad smell whatever, and there were no symptoms of
putrefaction, saving that, just round the wound, the flesh appeared
somewhat discoloured.

The Indian, on his return home, carefully suspends his blowpipe from the
top of his spiral roof; seldom placing it in an oblique position, lest it
should receive a cast.

Here let the blowpipe remain suspended, while you take a view of the arms
which are made to slay the larger beasts of the forest.

When the Indian intends to chase the peccari, or surprise the deer, or
rouse the tapir from his marshy retreat, he carries his bow and arrows,
which are very different from the weapons already described.

The bow is generally from six to seven feet long, and strung with a cord,
spun out of the silk-grass. The forests of Guiana furnish many species
of hard wood, tough and elastic, out of which beautiful and excellent
bows are formed.

The arrows are from four to five feet in length, made of a yellow reed
without a knot or joint. It is found in great plenty up and down
throughout Guiana. A piece of hard wood, about nine inches long, is
inserted into the end of the reed, and fastened with cotton well waxed.
A square hole, an inch deep, is then made in the end of this piece of
hard wood, done tight round with cotton to keep it from splitting. Into
this square hole is fitted a spike of coucourite wood, poisoned, and
which may be kept there, or taken out at pleasure. A joint of bamboo,
about as thick as your finger, is fitted on over the poisoned spike, to
prevent accidents and defend it from the rain, and is taken off when the
arrow is about to be used. Lastly, two feathers are fastened on the
other end of the reed to steady it in its flight.

Besides his bow and arrows, the Indian carries a little box made of
bamboo, which holds a dozen or fifteen poisone