OK TEGETABLE POISONS OF THE SAMOAN ISLANDERS. 55 



On the Nature and Mode of Use of the Vegetable Poisons em- 

 ployed by the Samoan Islanders. By the Eev. TnoMAS 



Powell, F.L.S. 



[Read March 15, 18770 



The death of that great and good man the late Commodore Good- 

 enough, from the poisoned arrows of the people of Santa, having 

 invested those deadly weapons with so peculiar an interest, I am 

 sure no apology will be required for my presenting to the Linnean 

 Society at one of its Meetings the following particulars upon the 

 subject of poisoned spears and arrows. 



I have in the mission establishment here a native of Efat, 

 (Sandwich Island) in the New Hebrides. He is the son of the 

 late chief of the village of Erakor, whose name was Torlie, and 

 who, under the influence of our Samoan evangelists, embraced 

 Christianity in 1845. He then adopted the name of Pomare. 

 This son of his, who is about 35 years of age, obtained from him 

 the following particulars upon the above subject. 



Poisoned Spears and Arroivs, 



The Preparation of the Points. — This, together with the prepa- 

 ration of the poison, was a regular business, and practised only 

 by the initiated. They were distinguished by constantly wearing 

 the osfemoris of a pig inserted between the arm and the armlet. 



When these men heard of any person suffering from some very 

 acute disease indicated by excessive delirium, they watched for 

 his death and then noted the place of his burial. After the lapse 

 of five or six months they would stealthily open his grave and 

 carry thence the large bones of both extremities and the parietal 

 bones of the skull. Of these they made the points of the speara 

 and arrows. Of the femoral bones alone were made the points of 

 the spears. These were prepared by sawing off the upper part 

 below the processes separating the outer condyle, and rubbing down 

 the inner one to a fine point. A wooden handle was then inserted 

 into the upper end and securely fastened with the bark of a twi- 

 ning plant coated with some gummy substance which made it im- 



oerishable. 



The other bones were sawn into small pieces from an inch to 

 two inches long, and then rubbed down on stones to a very fine 

 point. On account of the convexity of the parietal bones, the 



