BUSHMEN'S POISONS. 189 



again by a lion driving them off to a very great distance. The 

 lions here are not often heard. They seem to have a wholesome 

 dread of the Bushmen, who, when they observe evidence of a 

 lion's having made a full meal, follow up his spoor so quietly that 

 his slumbers are not disturbed. One discharges a poisoned arrow 

 from a distance of only a few feet, while his companion simulta- 

 neously throws his skin cloak on the beast's head. The sudden 

 surprise makes the lion lose his presence of mind, and he bounds 

 away in the greatest confusion and terror. Our friends here 

 showed me the poison which they use on these occasions. It is 

 the entrails of a caterpillar called N'gwa, half an inch long. 

 They squeeze out these, and place them all around the bottom of 

 the barb, and allow the poison to dry in the sun. They are very 

 careful in cleaning their nails after working with it, as a small 

 portion introduced into a scratch acts like morbid matter in dis- 

 section wounds. The agony is so great that the person cuts him- 

 self, calls for his mother's breast as if he were returned in idea to 

 his childhood again, or flies from human habitations a raging ma- 

 niac. The effects on the lion are equally terrible. He is heard 

 moaning in distress, and becomes furious, biting the trees and 

 ground in rage. 



As the Bushmen have the reputation of curing the wounds of 

 this poison, I asked how this was effected. They said that they 

 administer the caterpillar itself in combination with fat ; they also 

 rub fat into the wound, saying that "the N'gwa wants fat, and, 

 when it does not find it in the body, kills the man : we give it 

 what it wants, and it is content :" a reason which will commend 

 itself to the enlightened among ourselves. 



The poison more generally employed is the milky juice of the 

 tree Euphorbia {E. arborescens). This is particularly obnoxious 

 to the equine race. When a quantity is mixed with the water 

 of a pond a whole herd of zebras will fall dead from the effects of 

 the poison before they have moved away two miles. It does not, 

 however, kill oxen or men. On them it acts as a drastic purgative 

 only. This substance is used all over the country, though in some 

 places the venom of serpents and a certain bulb, Amaryllis toxi- 

 earia, are added, in order to increase the virulence. 



Father Pedro, a Jesuit, who lived at Zumbo, made a balsam, 

 containing a number of plants and castor oil, as a remedy for 



