hoffmas] POISONED ARROWS 285 



practiced various ceremonies and methods of preparation of supposed 

 or actually poisonous compounds, which were believed to aid in the 

 destruction of the life of the animal or person struck or wounded by 

 an arrow, or toward whom the missile was directed, regardless of the 

 distance between the intended victim and the person using' the weapon. 

 In many instances the venom or decomposed organic matter employed 

 no doubt caused septicaemia and Anally death; but the motive prompt- 

 ing the preparation of such arrows, and the power possessed by them, 

 is to be found in their niythologic beliefs. 



According to Mr J. N. B. Hewitt, both the Tuskarora and the Cayuga 

 Indians of the Iroquoian stock used poison similar to that above men- 

 tioned for anointing their arrows, and the Dakota, Blackfeet, and other 

 tribes to the westward of the Menomini practiced a like custom, so that 

 it is only reasonable to assume that in former times this tribe was 

 acquainted with a method of poisoning arrows, even if the practice 

 was not generally followed. 1 



An instance in illustration of this was the use by the Ojibwa and 

 Dakota — neighboring tribes of the Menomini — of the delicate spines 

 of the leaves of the common cactus (Opuntia missouriense), found in 

 the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri. Although exceedingly 

 minute, these spines cause much pain if they puncture the skin. 

 They were formerly gathered and mixed with grease in the form of an 

 ointment, which was applied to arrowshafts, as well as to small depres- 

 sions bored in leaden bullets. The extreme pain caused by the pres- 

 ence in the flesh of these delicate spines has suggested the belief that 

 when a missile so anointed is shot into a human being or a beast, the 

 spines travel forward in pursuit of the life, or more literally the shade, 

 of the creature and compel its abandonment of the body in which it 

 had its abode. The mit;i' v , however, if he be very powerful, may suc- 

 ceed in calling back the life of such a victim, provided the gifts are 

 sufficiently valuable to appease the ma'nidos, whose aid must be 

 invoked. 



In the expulsion of demons from a person possessed by them — the 

 effects being known by bodily suffering, etc — the shaman may have 

 recourse to more than the simple performance of exorcism. Bemedies 

 believed to be obnoxious to the life of the demon, or mystery, possess- 



'I have already had occasion to present in detail the several methods of poisoning arrows, as prac- 

 ticed by Beveral well-known tribes of Indians, and present herewith the bibliographic references, viz : 



Poisoned Arrows. Pacific Rural Press. San Francisco, California, vol. xv, 1878, p. 82. (Read before 

 the Philosophical Society of Washington, District of Columbia, January 5, 1878.) 



The Use of Poisoned Arrows. Mining and Scientific Press, San Francisco, California, vol. xxxvi, 

 1878, p. 163. 



Ueberdie Zubereitung des Pfeilgiftes durch die Pai-T7ta Indianer von Nevada. Verhandl. Berliner 

 Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic und Urgeschichte (April 17), 1880, pp. 91, 92. 



Note sur les tleches empoisonnees des Indiens de l'Anieriqae du Nord. Bull. Soc. d' Anthropologic 

 de Paris, tome sixieme, iii B serie, i e fascicule, 1883, pp. 205-208. 



Das Pfeilvergiften der Indianer aus Puget Sund. Das Ausland, No. 13 (March 20), 1888, p. 260. 



Poisoned Arrows. The American Anthropologist, vol. iv. No. 1, Washington, 1891, pp. 67-71. 



Klallam arrows were tipped with heads of native copper and caused to corrode by wetting with sea- 

 "water; Lipans employed the yucca juice, and the Sissetons the spines of asmali cactus, O. missouriense. 



