Part 19 (1/2)
”We found no trace of the Raposa,” Lourenco evaded
”What do you plan to do now?”
”Eat--smoke--talk--sleep”
McKay eyed the bush back But, feeling also that this pair knehat they were about, he bided his ti with that of the burning wood, Lourenco drew the arrow froround and studied it Then he passed it to Pedro, who, after a critical examination, held it in the blaze until the deadly head was burned away
”A big-game arrow of the cannibal Mayorunas,” said Lourenco ”The point, with its sawtooth barbs, is made from the tail bone of the araya, the flat devilfish of the swamp lakes That fish, as you perhaps know, has a whiplike tail armed with that bone; and if he strikes the bone into your flesh it breaks off and stays in the wound, and you are likely to die”
”But in that case death corene,” McKay remarked ”This point has been dipped in wurali poison”
”You have seen such arrows before, Capitao?”
”Seen the poison before, yes Over in British Guiana The Macusi Indians make it from the wurali vine, some bitter root or other, a couple of bulbous plants, two kinds of ants--one big and black with a venomous bite, the other ss of labarri and couanacouchi snakes They boil all this stuff down to a thick syrup, and that's the poison The man who makes it is sick for days afterward”
”Our cannibals make that poison in much the same way Yet Guiana isof those Macusi people Queer, is it not, that the saes thousands of miles apart?”
”Rather odd Must have started froo and spread around Queerest thing is, though, that a poison so deadly doesn't spoil ”
”Huh?” exclaimed Tim ”Mean to say them cannibals can kill us by scratchin' us with a poison arrer and then stummick us afterwards?”
”Exactly You'd taste just as sweet as ever, Tim--maybe more so Cheer up! They say it doesn't hurt much to die that way; you're paralyzed so quick you just sort of fade out”
Ti as ever Knowlton spoke
”I've heard that this wurali poison is much overrated, that it will kill only birds and monkeys, notto appear wise!” Pedro snorted ”We have seen the poison death, and we know”
McKay also shook his head
”Experiments have been made with the wurali of the Macusis,” he stated
”It was tried on a hog, a sloth--and a sloth is rown ox weighing almost half a ton
It killed every one of theazed sourly at the arro harrowled ”Cap, ye had a narrer squeak--coittin' it frouy”
The bush