to
him. She has not only ordered poisonous herbs and roots to grow in the
unbounded forests through which he strays, but has also furnished an
excellent reed for his arrows, and another, still more singular, for his
blowpipe; and planted trees of an amazing hard, tough, and elastic
texture, out of which he forms his bows. And in order that nothing might
be wanting, she has superadded a tree which yields him a fine wax, and
disseminated up and down, a plant not unlike that of the pineapple, which
affords him capital bowstrings.

Having now followed the Indian in the chase, and described the poison,
let us take a nearer view of its action, and observe a large animal
expiring under the weight of its baneful virulence.

Many have doubted the strength of the wourali poison. Should they ever
by chance read what follows, probably their doubts on that score will be
settled for ever.

In the former experiment on the hog some faint resistance on the part of
nature was observed, as if existence struggled for superiority; but in
the following instance of the sloth life sank in death without the least
apparent contention, without a cry, without a struggle, and without a
groan. This was an ai, or three-toed sloth. It was in the possession of
a gentleman who was collecting curiosities. He wished to have it killed,
in order to preserve the skin, and the wourali-poison was resorted to as
the easiest death.

Of all animals, not even the toad and tortoise excepted, this poor
ill-formed creature is the most tenacious of life. It exists long after
it has received wounds which would have destroyed any other animal; and
it may be said, on seeing a mortally wounded sloth, that life disputes
with death every inch of flesh in its body.

The ai was wounded in the leg, and put down on the floor, about two feet
from the table; it contrived to reach the leg of the table, and fastened
himself on it, as if wishful to ascend. But this was its last advancing
step: life was ebbing fast, though imperceptibly; nor could this singular
production of nature, which has been formed of a texture to resist death
in a thousand shapes, make any stand against the wourali-poison.

First, one fore-leg let go its hold, and dropped down motionless by its
side; the other gradually did the same. The fore-legs having now lost
their strength, the sloth slowly doubled its body, and placed its head
betwixt its hind-legs, which still adhered to the table; but w