death, in case he should happen to get loose, they first pricked him
in the breast with one of their poisoned arrows. After this they
continued, with dreadful barbarity, practising on their miserable
victim acts of cruelty too horrible to be related; till at length,
the accumulation of pain and torment, terminated the wretched
man’s existence.
27th. Maagers came to me this forenoon, in much distress, to ask
medical advice for his child, of about two years old, who had been
bitten by- some venomous reptile or insect, supposed to be either
a spider, a scorpion or a snake, while playing on a heap of dry reeds;
I hastened to the spot, and found the child apparently dying: his
body had swelled rapidly; the limbs were growing stiff; and a convulsive
blackness had spread over the face. Below the pit of the
stomach, I discovered two slight punctures within an inch of each
other, which put me out of all doubt as to what might have occasioned
the state to which the child was reduced. For these could
have been made by nothing else than the two fangs of a snake: but
of what species it might be, we were unable to guess. The
venom was judged to have pervaded the system, and the symptoms
appeared all of the extreme kind; yet although it was looked upon
as a hopeless case, I could not omit trying a remedy in which
I should have had great confidence, if so much time had not
been lost.
I immediately forced the child to swallow ten drops of the solution
of ammonia* in two ounces of water; and, having with a penknife
scarified the parts around the wound, which operation, however,
drew very little blood, I bathed the place with a mixture of the
same medicine prepared of four times the strength. In five minutes
after this, another draught was administered; and in about ten
minutes afterwards, a slight vomiting ensued: but whether occasioned
by the medicine, or by the poison, it is uncertain. As I
attentively watched the progress of the remedy, I saw within the
* Liquor Ammonia of the London Dispensary.
next quarter of an hour, with no little surprise and pleasure, that the
force of the venom was evidently subdued; that the blood began to
circulate more freely, and that there was a fair prospect of saving the
child’s life. The cure was actually completed before the following
morning; at which time I found him playing as well as usual; nor
did I afterwards hear that this bite left, ultimately, any unpleasant
result behind.
We shot a large bird of the bustard kind; which was called
Wilde Paauw (Wild Peacock). This name is here very wrongly
applied, as the bird to which it properly belongs, differs from this in
every respect. There are indeed three, or perhaps four, birds to
which in different districts, this appellation is given. The present,
species, which is called Kori * in the Sichuana language, measured,
in extent of wing, not less than seven feet; and in bulk and weight,
was almost greater than some of the people could manage. The'
under part of the body was white, but the upper part was covered
with fine lines of black on a light chesnut-coloured ground. The tail
and quill-feathers partook of the general colouring of the back. The
shoulders were marked with large blotches of black and white ; and
the top of the head was black. The feathers of the occiput were elongated
into a crest. Those of the neck were also elongated, loose, narrow
and pointed, and were of a whitish color marked with numerous
transverse lines of black. The irides were of a beautiful, pellucid,
changeable, silvery, ferrugineous color. A representation of the head
of the Kori Bustard in the proportion of one-fifth , of the natural size,
is given at the end of this chapter. Its body was so thickly protected
by feathers, that our largest-sized shot made no impression; and,
taught by experience, the hunters never fire at it, but with a bullet.
# Otis Kori, B. Suprà dilute castanea, plumis 'nigro lineatis. Abdomen et pectus
alba. Cauda et alæ corpori concolores. Tectrices superiores alarum maculis álbis et
nigris magnis notatæ. Pileus niger. Cristata ex plumis occipitalibus elongatis.
Plumæ colli elongatæ acutæ augustas, laxæ, albidæ nigro fàsciatæ. Pedes et digiti
albidi. Irides pellucidæ argenteo-ferrugineæ. — Vide iconem, ad quintam partem mag*
nitudinis naturalis diminutam, capitulo xvi. subjunctam. .