d spikes six inches long.
They are poisoned in the following manner: a small piece of wood is
dipped in the poison, and with this they give the spike a first coat. It
is then exposed to the sun or fire. After it is dry, it receives another
coat, and is then dried again; after this a third coat, and sometimes a
fourth.

They take great care to put the poison on thicker at the middle than at
the sides, by which means the spike retains the shape of a two-edged
sword. It is rather a tedious operation to make one of these arrows
complete; and as the Indian is not famed for industry, except when
pressed by hunger, he has hit upon a plan of preserving his arrows which
deserves notice.

About a quarter of an inch above the part where the coucourite spike is
fixed into the square hole, he cuts it half through; and thus, when it
has entered the animal, the weight of the arrow causes it to break off
there, by which means the arrow falls to the ground uninjured; so that,
should this be the only arrow he happens to have with him, and should
another shot immediately occur, he has only to take another poisoned
spike out of his little bamboo box, fit it on his arrow, and send it to
its destination.

Thus armed with deadly poison, and hungry as the hyaena, he ranges
through the forest in quest of the wild beast's track. No hound can act
a surer part. Without clothes to fetter him, or shoes to bind his feet,
he observes the footsteps of the game, where an European eye could not
discern the smallest vestige. He pursues it through all its turns and
windings with astonishing perseverance, and success generally crowns his
efforts. The animal, after receiving the poisoned arrow, seldom retreats
two hundred paces before it drops.

In passing overland from the Essequibo to the Demerara we fell in with a
herd of wild hogs. Though encumbered with baggage, and fatigued with a
hard day's walk, an Indian got his bow ready; and let fly a poisoned
arrow at one of them. It entered the cheek-bone and broke off. The wild
hog was found quite dead about one hundred and seventy paces from the
place where he had been shot. He afforded us an excellent and wholesome
supper.

Thus the savage of Guiana, independent of the common weapons of
destruction, has it in his power to prepare a poison, by which he can
generally ensure to himself a supply of animal food; and the food so
destroyed imbibes no deleterious qualities. Nature has been bountiful