466 



POISONED AKEOWS. 



Chap. XXIII. 



a portion of moat round the wo and is cut away, and all the 

 rest eaten. 



Poisoned arrows are made in, two pieces. An iron barb is 

 firmly fastened to one end of a small wand of wood, ten 

 inches or a foot long, the other end of which, fined down to a 

 long point, is nicely fitted, though not otherwise secured, in 



amiMmmtimmi&ji) 



A. Common form of Ajawa arrow iron head, with barbs. 



B. „ „ Manganja, poisoned at head and barbs, and neck. 



C. Manner of inserting arrow-head into the shaft. 



D. Entire arrow nearly four feet long, and feathered. 



the hollow of the reed, which forms the arrow shaft. The 

 wood immediately below the iron head is smeared with 

 the poison. When the arrow is shot into an animal, the reed 

 either falls to the ground at once, or is very soon brushed off 

 by the bushes ; but the iron barb and poisoned upper part 

 of the wood remain in the wound. If made in one piece, 

 the arrow would often be torn out, head and all, by the 

 long shaft catching in the underwood, or striking against 

 trees. The poison used here, and called Jcotnbi, is obtained 

 from a species of strophanthus, and is very virulent. Dr. 

 Kirk found by an accidental experiment on himself that 

 it acts by lowering the pulse. In using his tooth-brush, 



