MASAI, TURKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 87:5 



attacking and slaying most of the big antelopes. Thev kill the elephant 

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

 detachable and strongly poisoned head. The powerful anow pois.jn used 

 by the Andorobo, Kania.sia. Nandi, and Masai is made from the leaves 

 and branches of Acocnnfhera. schimpen. Tlie leaves and hrauches 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 2)oisoned 

 water until it is thick 

 and viscid, by which 

 time it has a pitch-like 

 appearand^. The poison 

 is kept until it is wanted 

 on sheets of bark. After 

 they have finished pi-e- 

 })aring the p(jison they 

 carefully rulj their hands 

 and bodies free from anv 

 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 hilts, but are 

 stiiwed away in branches. 

 ^^ hen ,1 beast has been 

 shot w'ith these arrows, 

 it dies \ery quickly. The 

 Hesh just round tlie arrow- 

 head is then cut out and thrown away, but all the rest of tin- liea.st is 

 eaten, and its blood is drunk. 



All these peoples iise dogs in hunting, and before starting for the cliase 

 they are said to give their dogs a drug which makes them tierce. Thej' 

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

 hunt, surround a herd of gauie in a circle, and then ajijiroach tlie animals 



496. AC0C.1.\ TIIERA SCHIilPJiRI 



