14 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



ness of youth has already given way to the wrinkles of age. . . . Their 

 early, and it may be said premature symptoms of age may, perhaps, with 

 much probability, be ascribed to a hard life, an uncertain and irregular 

 supply of food, exposure to every inclemency of weather, and a want of 

 cleanliness, which increases with years." 



Their arms consist of the bow-and-arrow, a spear, and a kind of club 

 with a round knob at the end called a kerri. Their arrows are tipped with 

 a mixture of vegetable and serpent poisons, and a wound from a poisoned 

 arrow is usually of so deadly a character that the other tribes of South Africa 

 look upon an encounter with the Bushmen with dread. They hunt the wild 

 animals of the country, and either shoot them with poisoned arrows or catch 

 them in pit-falls. With their spears they kill the fish in the rivers, and, 

 according to Burchell, they use the spear with great dexterity. 



The bow is of hard wood, about five feet in length, and is thickest at the 

 middle. The string is made of the intestines of the smaller animals. The 

 arrows, which are made of reeds, are about three feet and a half long, and are 

 winged with a feather. When the poison is put upon the bone or iron tips of 

 the arrows, it is in a glutinous state but hardens rapidly. The serpent poi- 

 son, as we have already mentioned, is mixed with the sap of certain poisonous 

 plants. The arrow is partially slit through within half an inch of the bone or 

 iron point, and frequently breaks off, leaving the head in the wound, which 

 ensures a more rapid death to the man or animal struck. 



The arrows are kept in a quiver made of the hollow stem of a sort of 

 aloe. The bottom and the tip of the quiver are covered with leather, and 

 not unfrequently it is altogether covered with leather. Their bows do not 

 carry with accuracy beyond a hundred yards. They must have studied the 

 horrid art of poisoning with considerable skill, as they are aware that the poi- 

 son of serpents acts rapidly and affects the blood, while the vegetable poisons 

 with which they mix it corrupt the flesh. If the poison be fresh, there is very 

 little hope of any animal surviving even a slight wound, and the Bushman 

 hunter will track a wounded animal for many miles until it dies. When a 

 man is wounded, he will, if he has the courage, cut out all the flesh surround- 

 ing the wound and so remove the danger. 



Lichtenstein says that: — "By far the greater part of the arrows are 

 pointed with bone : those with the iron heads are never used in the chase ; 

 they are reserved to be employed against mankind. The preparing the 

 arrows and mixing the poison are considered by them as arts, in which few 

 ever attain entire perfection. In like manner it is not every one among them 

 that can distinguish the poisonous sorts of serpents from those that are harm- 

 less. In general, it may be taken as a rule that those which move with the 

 greater agility are of the noxious kind. The well-known horned serpent, 

 which among the colonists is esteemed so very dangerous, is little esteemed 



