MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



873 



attacking and slayino- most of the big antelopes. They kill tlie elephant 

 very often by shooting into its leg at close quarters a harpoon with a 

 detachable and strongly poisoned head. The powerful ariow poison used 

 by the Andorobo, Kaniasia, Nandi, and Masai is made from the leaves 

 and branches of Acoatnthera schimperi. The leaves and branches of 

 this small tree are broken 

 up and boiled for about 

 six hours. The liquid is 

 then strained and cleared 

 of the fragments of leaves 

 and bark. They con- 

 tinue to boil the poisoned 

 water until it is thick 

 and viscid, by which 

 time it has a pitch-like 

 appearance. The poison 

 is kept until it is wanted 

 on sheets of bark. After 

 they have finished pre- 

 paring the poison they 

 carefully rub their hands 

 and bodies free from any 

 trace of it with the 

 fleshy, juicy leaves of a 

 kind of sage. The poison 

 is always kept high up 

 on the forks of trees out 

 of the reach of children, 

 and the poisoned arrows 

 are never kept in the 

 people's huts, but are 

 stowed away in branches. 

 When a beast has been 

 shot with these arrows, 

 it dies very quickly. The 

 flesh just round the arrow- 

 head is then cut out and tlirown away, but all the rest of the beast is 

 eaten, and its blood is drunk. 



All these peoples use dogs in hunting, and before starting for tlie chase 

 they are said to give their dogs a drug which makes them fierce. They 

 also catch birds with bird-lime. The Nandi go out in large numbers to 

 hunt, surround a herd of game in a circle, and then approach the animals 



496. ACOCA.\THERA SCHIMPERI 



