Note 1020 — Chapter VII · WILD TRIBES OF CENTRAL AMERICA. (continued 2)

'The pipe was made of two pieces of reed, each forming a half circle; these being placed together left a small hole, just large enough for the admission of the arrow.... The arrows are about eight inches long ... the point very sharp, and cut like a corkscrew for an inch up.... This is rolled in the poison.... The arrow will fly one hundred yards, and is certain death to man or animal wounded by it; no cure as yet having been discovered. A tiger, when hit, runs ten or a dozen yards, staggers, becomes sick, and dies in four or five minutes. A bird is killed as with a bullet, and the arrow and wounded part of the flesh being cut out, the remainder is eaten without danger.' Cochrane's Journal in Colombia, vol. ii., pp. 405-7. 'That poyson killeth him that is wounded, but not suddenly.... Whoso is wounded, liues a miserable and strict life after that, for he must abstaine from many things.' Peter Martyr, dec. viii., lib. viii. 'Some woorali (corova) and poisoned arrows that I obtained from the Indians of the interior were procured by them from Choco ... their deadly effect is almost instantaneous.' Cullen's Darien, p. 67. 'We inquired of all the Indians, both men and boys, at Caledonia Bay and at San Blas for the "curari" or "urari" poison ... they brought us what they represented to be the bona-fide poison.... It turned out to be nothing but the juice of the manzanillo del playa. So, if this is their chief poison, and is the same as the "curari", it is not so much to be dreaded.' Selfridge's Darien Surveys, pp. 136-7. See further, Fitz-Roy, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xx., p. 164; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. i., lib. vii., cap. xvi.; Michler's Darien, p. 77; Dampier's Voyages, vol. i., p. 41.