Wanderings in South America | Page 7

the teeth of wild boars slain in the chase; many wore rings,
and others had an ornament on the left arm midway betwixt the
shoulder and the elbow. At the close of day they regularly bathed in the
river below, and the next morning seemed busy in renewing the faded
colours of their faces.
One day there came into the hut a form which literally might be called
the wild man of the woods. On entering he laid down a ball of wax
which he had collected in the forest. His hammock was all ragged and
torn, and his bow, though of good wood, was without any ornament or
polish: "erubuit domino, cultior esse suo." His face was meagre, his
looks forbidding and his whole appearance neglected. His long black
hair hung from his head in matted confusion; nor had his body, to all
appearance, ever been painted. They gave him some cassava bread and
boiled fish, which he ate voraciously, and soon after left the hut. As he
went out you could observe no traces in his countenance or demeanour
which indicated that he was in the least mindful of having been
benefited by the society he was just leaving.
The Indians said that he had neither wife nor child nor friend. They had
often tried to persuade him to come and live amongst them, but all was
of no avail. He went roving on, plundering the wild bees of their honey
and picking up the fallen nuts and fruits of the forest. When he fell in
with game he procured fire from two sticks and cooked it on the spot.
When a hut happened to be in his way he stepped in and asked for
something to eat, and then months elapsed ere they saw him again.
They did not know what had caused him to be thus unsettled: he had
been so for years; nor did they believe that even old age itself would
change the habits of this poor harmless, solitary wanderer.
From Simon's the traveller may reach the large fall, with ease, in four
days.
The first falls that he meets are merely rapids, scarce a stone appearing

above the water in the rainy season; and those in the bed of the river
barely high enough to arrest the water's course, and by causing a
bubbling show that they are there.
With this small change of appearance in the stream, the stranger
observes nothing new till he comes within eight or ten miles of the
great fall. Each side of the river presents an uninterrupted range of
wood, just as it did below. All the productions found betwixt the
plantations and the rock Saba are to be met with here.
From Simon's to the great fall there are five habitations of the Indians:
two of them close to the river's side; the other three a little way in the
forest. These habitations consist of from four to eight huts, situated on
about an acre of ground which they have cleared from the surrounding
woods. A few pappaw, cotton and mountain-cabbage trees are scattered
round them.
At one of these habitations a small quantity of the wourali poison was
procured. It was in a little gourd. The Indian who had it said that he had
killed a number of wild hogs with it, and two tapirs. Appearances
seemed to confirm what he said, for on one side it had been nearly
taken out to the bottom, at different times, which probably would not
have been the case had the first or second trial failed.
Its strength was proved on a middle-sized dog. He was wounded in the
thigh, in order that there might be no possibility of touching a vital part.
In three or four minutes he began to be affected, smelt at every little
thing on the ground around him, and looked wistfully at the wounded
part. Soon after this he staggered, laid himself down, and never rose
more. He barked once, though not as if in pain. His voice was low and
weak; and in a second attempt it quite failed him. He now put his head
betwixt his fore-legs, and raising it slowly again he fell over on his side.
His eye immediately became fixed, and though his extremities every
now and then shot convulsively, he never showed the least desire to
raise up his head. His heart fluttered much from the time he laid down,
and at intervals beat very strong; then stopped for a moment or two,
and then beat again; and continued faintly beating several minutes after
every other part of his body seemed dead.

In a quarter of an hour after he had received the poison he was quite
motionless.
A few miles before you reach the great fall, and which