This Poison Is Employed Partly By The Ticunas, Who Remain Independent On The Spanish Territory Near The Sources Of The Yacarique; And Partly By Indians Of The Same Tribe, Inhabiting The Portuguese Mission Of Loreto.

The poisons we have just named differ totally from that of La Peca, and from the poison of Lamas and of Moyobamba.

I enter into these details because the vestiges of plants which we were able to examine, proved to us (contrary to the common opinion) that the three poisons of the Ticunas, of La Peca, and of Moyobamba are not obtained from the same species, probably not even from congeneric plants. In proportion as the preparation of the curare is simple, that of the poison of Moyobamba is a long and complicated process. With the juice of the bejuco de ambihuasca, which is the principal ingredient, are mixed pimento, tobacco, barbasco (Jacquinia armillaris), sanango (Tabernae montana), and the milk of some other apocyneae. The fresh juice of the ambihuasca has a deleterious action when in contact with the blood; the juice of the mavacure is a mortal poison only when it is concentrated by fire; and ebullition deprives the juice of the root of Jatropha manihot (the manioc) of all its baneful qualities. In rubbing a long time between my fingers the liana which yields the potent poison of La Peca, when the weather was excessively hot, my hands were benumbed; and a person who was employed with me felt the same effects from this rapid absorption by the uninjured integuments.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 660 of 777
Words from 179507 to 179763 of 211397