e glutinous juice are poisonous, or at least very
little so, but that they are added merely to give denseness to the
mixture or else from a false supposition of the indigenes.

And less still can serpents' teeth or crushed wasps have any influence
in increasing the power of this poison, which is in itself intense.

Evidently the Sakais, well aware of the lethal effect of a bite from a
serpent, think that by introducing into the wound, by means of their
dart, a tiny portion of the organ which determines this effect, an equal
result will follow.

He neither knows nor imagines that the tooth exercises a simple
mechanical action in consequence of which the little reservoir of
poison, being compressed, lets a drop fall into the wound produced by
the bite.

But there is nothing to be surprised at in this because in history we
learn that the superstitions and sorceries practised by more advanced
races than the Sakais offer the most curious documents in proof of such
odd reasoning.

It is enough to remember that in the time of Augustus the jaw bone of a
female dog, which had been kept fasting, and a quill plucked from a
screech-owl were required for the enchantments of Canidia, _ossa ab ore
rapta jejunae canis, plumanque nocturna strigis_. And yet it was just at
that period Rome had inherited from Greece the Philosophy of the
Epicureans and that of the Sceptics and was maturing the poem of
Lucretius Carus!

And quite recently has it not been narrated by Parson Evans, of Wales,
how he had been badly treated by a spirit because he had forgotten a
fumigation during one of his enchantments?

If there has been so much imposture or hallucination amongst advanced
peoples (or supposed to be such) we cannot reproach the poor Sakai for
his ignorance if in all good faith he thinks that a pinch of pounded
bees and serpents' teeth increases the virulence of the _legop_ poison.
Does he not also believe that the mysterious words muttered by the _Ala_
give greater force to his murderous preparations?

* * * * *

As to the effects of the _legop_ strange and contradictory versions are
given.

Some affirm that the smallest possible quantity brought into contact
with the blood, causes instantaneous death; others declare that it is
not sufficiently powerful to kill a man or a beast if the quantity
inoculated is not in proportion to the size or if they are strong enough
to resist it.

It is my opinion th