“Oh,” exclaimed Edith, “wasn’t that dreadful?”

“The story was dreadful, dear, but it was only a story, you know:  the upas tree did not kill people at all; and to turn the milky juice into a dangerous poison took a great deal of time and trouble.  It was mixed with various spices and fermented; when ready for use, it was poured into the hollow joints of bamboo and carefully kept from the air.  Both for war and for the chase arrows are dipped in this fatal preparation, and the effect has been witnessed by naturalists on animals, and also on man.  The instant it touches the blood it is carried through the whole system, so that it may be felt in all the veins and causes a burning sensation, especially in the head, which is followed by sickness and death.”

“Well,” said Clara, drawing a long breath, “I’m glad that I don’t live in Java.”

“The poisoned arrows are not constantly flying about in Java, dear,” replied her governess, with a smile, “and I do not think you would be in any danger from them; but there are a great many other reasons why it is not pleasant, except for natives, to live in Java.  There are a number of Dutch settlers there, because the island was conquered by the Dutch nation, but while war with the natives was going on they suffered terribly from these poisoned arrows; so that the very name of upas caused them to tremble.  The word ‘upas,’ in the language of the natives, means poison, and there is in the island a valley called the upas, or poison, valley.  It has nothing, however, to do with the tree, which does not grow anywhere in the neighborhood.  That valley may literally be called ‘The Valley of Death.’  We are told that it came to exist in this way:  The largest mountain in Java was once partly buried in a very dreadful manner.  In the middle of a summer night the people in the neighborhood perceived a luminous cloud that seemed wholly to envelop the mountain.  They were extremely alarmed and took to flight, but ere they could escape a terrific noise was heard, like the discharge of cannon, and part of the mountain fell in and disappeared.  At the same moment quantities of stones and lava were thrown to the distance of several miles.  Fifteen miles of ground covered with villages and plantations were swallowed up or buried under the lava from the mountain; and when all was over and people tried to visit the scene of the disaster, they could not approach it on account of the heat of the stones and other substances piled upon one another.  And yet as much as six weeks had elapsed since the catastrophe.  This upas valley is about half a mile in circumference, and the vapor that escapes through the cracks and fissures is fatal to every living thing.  Here, indeed, are to be seen the bones of animals and birds, and even the skeletons of human beings who were unfortunate enough to enter and were overpowered by the deadly vapor.  And now,” added Miss Harson, “I have given you this account to make you understand that the famous upas valley of Java is not a valley of upas trees, but one of poisonous vapors.”