THE WONDER 8 OF VEGETATION. 137 



a rock in order to break off a branch which I brought 

 home with me to France, but the negro seeing me ap- 

 proach, fled in terror from the shade of the deadly 

 tree, gesticulating wildly and shouting words in a lan- 

 guage I could not comprehend. His signs, however, 

 and a few Arab words uttered by one of the bystand- 

 ers : ( Do you mean to die ?' made me understand 

 that in touching the tree I was running a serious dan- 

 ger. But the thing was done and the broken branch 

 in my hand ; immediately a milky liquid flowed forth 

 in much greater quantity than I could have imag- 

 ined from what I knew of these plants in other coun- 

 tries covering my clothes and penetrating even to 

 my skin. The features and gestures of the negroes 

 expressed their pity and their fear. They made me 

 understand, that if the white juice touched one of the 

 numerous wounds which I at that time had on my 

 body, I should die ; and that it was dangerous even 

 to let it touch the skin. 



"It is with this juice that they poison their weap- 

 ons in order to make their wounds mortal ; but they 

 first thicken it, till it acquires the consistency of 

 paste ; then they dip in it the points or blades of the 

 weapons they wish to poison." 



Trees of this kind often reach twenty-four feet in 

 diameter, and seventy feet in circumference. The 

 greatest height of trees of this size is twenty-four feet. 

 The trunk and the large branches are of hard wood ; 

 the smaller branches consist mostly of pith and pa- 

 renchyme, sustained by a slender woody fibre. 



