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This extraordinary tube of death is, perhaps, one of the greatest natural curiosities of Guiana. It is not found in the country of the Macoushi. Those Indians tell you that it grows to the south-west of them, in the wilds which extend betwixt them and the Rio Negro.
However, I find now that no exact period can be fixed; for in December 1824 an Indian in the River Demerara gave me a young cock-of-the-rock not a month old, and it had just been brought from the Macoushi country. By having a young specimen at this time of the year it puts it out of one's power to say at what precise time the old birds are in full plumage.
Make a large fire and stand close to it, and if you be covered with ticks they will all fall off. Let us now forget for awhile the quadrupeds, serpents and insects, and take a transitory view of the native Indians of these forests. There are five principal nations or tribes of Indians in ci-devant Dutch Guiana, commonly known by the name of Warow, Arowack, Acoway, Carib and Macoushi.
The Indians in the vicinity of the Rio Negro are aware of this, and come to the Macoushi country to purchase it. Much has been said concerning this fatal and extraordinary poison.
There is also attached to the quiver a little kind of basket, to hold the wild cotton, which is put on the blunt end of the arrow. With a quiver of poisoned arrows slung over his shoulder, and with his blowpipe in his hand, in the same position as a soldier carries his musket, see the Macoushi Indian advancing towards the forest in quest of powises, maroudis, waracabas, and other feathered game.
Conjecture was of no avail, and all conversation next morning on the subject was as useless and unsatisfactory as the dead silence which succeeded to the noise. He who wishes to reach the Macoushi country had better send his canoe over- land from Sinkerman's to the Essequibo.
"Well, it is strange; the murderer must have been a great traveller also. He must have been among the Macoushi Indians of Guiana, and well acquainted with their arts. I know them too. I went there botanizing." "You won't be more explicit?" "No," he said; "you must take it on my word, after all."
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