DEATH FROM A POISONED ARROW. 15 



by the Bushmen, because it does not move swiftly. Some which are very 

 poisonous are slow and languid in their movements at the time they are about 

 to cast their skins, and the Bushmen affirm they have then no effective poison. 

 The greater the trouble they have in catching a serpent, and the more it 

 writhes and seems enraged, the more pungent is the poison esteemed, the more 

 certain and dreadful in its effects. The dexterity and courage shown by 

 them in catching these serpents are truly astonishing. No sooner do they see 

 the animal upon the level ground than they set their foot upon its neck, press 

 the head fast together with their fingers, and then separate the head from the 

 body with a knife. They then take the bag of poison out of the head, and 

 prepare it for use, before time can be allowed for the least particle of its pun- 

 gency to evaporate." 



Lichtenstein was an eye witness to the fatal effects resulting from a 

 wound with a poisoned arrow. He and his followers were travelling in a 

 neighbourhood where a party of Bushmen were at feud with the Hottentots 

 and settlers. The Bushmen were known to be in the neighbourhood, but 

 no danger was apprehended : — 



"On a sudden we heard the twang of a bow on one side of us ; and, 

 at the same moment, my Hottentot gave a scream, and exclaimed that he 

 was wounded : then hastily turning round, fired his gun. The arrow stuck 

 in his side, between the sixth and seventh ribs, and entered nearly two 

 inches deep. Our companions hastened up to us immediately, and assisted 

 me to draw it out carefully. In this we partially succeeded, notwithstand- 

 ing the hook that turns back (a kind of barb) ; but we found, alas ! that 

 the iron point, which is generally loosely fastened on, was left in the 

 wound, and with it, as we were afraid, some of the poison. Destitute as we 

 were of every kind of remedy, nothing remained but to seek the nearest 

 house with all the haste possible. We turned therefore directly to the 

 right, and descending the hill by a steep path, brought our wounded man 

 to a winter habitation directly, though the latter part of the way he ex- 

 perienced such dreadful agony from the wound, that he was scarcely able 

 to sit upon his horse. Every possible assistance was here given us by the 

 good people of the house ; but a too great length of time had elapsed 

 before this assistance could be obtained: in an hour and a half after our 

 arrival the poor creature expired. The patient lost all recollection, and 

 died in strong convulsions. . . Amidst all the afflictions which this accident 

 occasioned me, I had much reason to rejoice that the Bushmen were such 

 careful marksmen ; for, if the arrow had deviated the least from the direction 

 it took, I was so close to the Hottentot aimed at, that I should have 

 received it, and he would have been saved." 



The Bushmen, and most tribes in the African interior, eat the flesh of 

 serpents, and, with good reason, for it is most excellent ; being tender and 



