264 POISONED WEAPONS. [1697. 



the East of Java. These last make use likewise of the Crit or' 

 Cric, a poyson'd PonyarcP: They make themselves mad in like 

 manner with the Javans, with their Liquid Opium, of which 

 they take a certain Dose to render them dauntless and furious. 

 They haul out Moka, Moka, as the Javans do Amerci. When 

 they are in this Condition, they think only of killing, or being 

 kill'd themselves. A single Ilacassar in this furious Humour, 

 would attack a whole Eegiment. They have Iron Corselets, 

 and with their Cric, wear likewise a Sabre and a Zagay : 

 They also shoot Poyson'd Darts^ out of a Trunk. Certain 

 pieces of paper with Magick Characters which they carry 



desperate battle, at noon day, in which no person interfered, the aggressor 

 ■was at length completely cut to pieces." (Thorn, I. c, p. 335.) Major 

 Thorn also cites another recent instance, equally shocking and barbarous, 

 in which an escaped criminal killed upwards of twenty men before he 

 fell under the crissesof his assailants. 



1 In orig. : "empoisoune avec des manieres superstitieuses & dia- 

 boliques." 



- In orig. : "lis souflent aussi de petits dards envenimez avec la 

 Sarbacane." 



Poisoned weapons. " Antiaris toxicaria of the Siamese countries 

 and Malayan archipelago. The boJiun Upas is a large forest-tree, 

 sometimes called '■'■ ani.y'ar'', and the knowledge of its exudation seems 

 implied in the prohibition against poisoned arrows in the Institutes of 

 Manu. Clasping the poison-tree is mentioned by Bliavahlmti. A. 

 toxicaria is known to grow as far as Lat. 19° in the neighbouring portion 

 of Burmah, and its exudation continues to be used by the Karens to 

 poison arrows. Further South, a tree in the Malayan archipelago, 

 according to Jordanus (Col. Yule's edit., Hakluyt Society, Vol. xxxi), is 

 said when in flower to kill every man that cometh near it : an account 

 not strictly true, but A. toxicaria has been shown by Rumj)hius, ii, pi. 87, 

 L. de la Tour and Blume, to be virulently poisonous ; it is known to 

 grow particularly on Java, Baly, and Celebes." (Dr. Charles Pickering, 

 Chronological Hist, of Plants^ p. 422.) 



" The Strychnos tieiite of Java, a climber 120 feet, or upas radja, the 

 bark of whose root yields one of the most dangerous poisons known, 

 acting like nux vomica." (Ibid., p. 445.) 



The betel palm is the Areca catechu of the Malay archipelago, said 

 to be the '■'■jjetros" of the Erythrfean Periplus, and its nuts have, 

 (iccording to Wilkinson, been exhumed from ancient Egyptian tombs. 

 (Pickering,*);) c//., p. 331.) 



