Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1890-04-10
''s' instant Deaun
VIC n'te of Tiny Serpent-QuIc.
IN arrow Tips-Terrible
ro'son of the Human Body.

soh OF the Human Body.
soiJ mere Is In India, says Edward Wake
u uelu IN the New York Sun, little SER
E Eah,, only few inches long, called
no''ys cor'ndta, which is so horribly
senomous that its bite is capable Of
NJ. Mig ueath In two or three seconds.
wv. single case is known of recovery
h ho' INC olte of Echys, where the snake
nj struck Its victim on the bare flesh
wi'hont any fabric Intervening. but in
noS' Instances the sufferer has been mar
,a." ea w''h intense agony almost stimuli
..pcousiy, the blood has coaoulatcd in
.nc VEINS and spasm of the heart has
ro o,a'i''co existence almost before any
Pr;t;1y could be even attempted. In
f DLa'isl India alone, it is shown bv care
a ao', 6oe eo''ected statistics, that more than
Iro'ooo persons arc DESTROYED annually
D asa via beasts, including snakes,
anu more than four-tifths the cas-
aa''ies are attributed to the lat
'ef' III Is well known too that snakes
are employed by the natives to terrible
1N.eht Tor purposes of secret murder.
:. a oeaoiy serpent, such as the Echys, or
wy more notorious but really less for
hioaoie cobra, is so confined in hollow
pan'ooo cane, that its head Just barely
pro'fuoes at the end, and the assassin,
carrying this diabolical weapon, which
LOOKS Ike harmless walking staff in his
hand approaches his enemy quite un-
suspected, and touching him unawares
with the end of the staff, causes the
snake to plunge its lethal fangs into his
ueienceless flesh. The victim is found
aead, perhaps, on his couch or divan, or
IN chair at table,or seated in some
lovely secluded garden, where his
tfeacherous foe and he may have retired
together to enjoy the shade and the per-
rune. His death is set down. to sun
stroke or fever, or any other of the
sudden diseases that are common in that
country; and in accordance with the local
custom, his body is hurricdly reduced to
ashes or consigned to the public recep-
tacle for the dead, before any INQUIRY
can be made
A friend of mine, who occupied an i'm
portant Consular post at Singapore, had
a narrow escape from death like this. He
mad Malay house steward who alone had
access to his bedroom. This man was
apparently most devoted to him, but the
wife of one of the under-servants having
complained that the stewart had offered
her an affront, the Consul had severely
reprimanded him and forbidden him to
speak to the woman again on pain
OF dismissal. The next morning nv
friend, who was an exceedingly early
riser, left his couch at the first
rays of dawn and went as usual to
the marble tank in a recess from his bed
room, where he always began his toilet
with shower bath. He was on the point
of stepping into the tank, when his at
tention was attracted by something gilt
tering in the half darkness. He stepped
back and drew aside the lattice, admit
ting the full light of morning. There,
in the marble basin, where in another
moment he would have placed his bare
foot, lay coiled up an Echys, with head
erect, prepared to spring. He summoned
the steward, but he was nowhere to be
found, and lie was never heard of again.
The other servants killed the snake.
which had undoubtedly been placed
there by the steward from motive of
revenge.
In parts of South America, notably in
the little-known country at the sources of
the Amazon, the natives have prepare
ton called wourali or worari, which is
one of the most deadly poisons known.
They use it for poisoning the tips of the
tiny darts which they propel from a blow
pipe with the mouth, to kill birds or
even small animals; and the effect is
generally fatal The bird or beast or
man-for the natives, though not Zero
cious people, sometimes employ wourali
for killing one another-becomes almost
Immediately paralyzed, or overcome with
drowsiness, the slightest prick of pois-
oned dart being sufficient to produce
these symptoms, and either dies with
great muscular contortion OF else is killed
by some other weapon as soon as re-
duced to helplessness by the poison.
Scientific men are at loss to discover
the secret of wourail. They cannot even
agree as to whether it is an animal, a
vegetable, or mineral poison. The cele-
brated English naturalist, Frank Buck
land, took deep interest in this ques-
ton, and after many laborious and very
perilous experiments, came to the conclu-
sion that the main ingredient of wourali
was snake poison, but there were other
ingredients intensifying or preserving the
snake poison, the nature OF which he