Chap. Till. BUSHMEN'S POISONS. 171 



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 simul- 

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

 surprise makes the Hon lose Ins 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 then nails after working with it, as a small 

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

 section woimds. 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 

 maniac. 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 tins was effected. They said that they 

 administer the caterpillar itself in combination with fat ; they 

 also rub fat into the woimd, 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 com- 

 mend itself to the enlightened among ourselves. 



The poison more generally employed is the milky juice of 

 the tree Euphorbia (E. arborescens). This is particularly ob- 

 noxious 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, 

 Amarylliss toxicaria, 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 



