158 BUSHMEN'S POISONS. 



charges a poisoned arrow from a distance of only a few 

 feet, while his companion simultaneously throws his skin 

 cloak on the beast's head. The sudden surprise makes 

 the Hon 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 dissection 

 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 habita- 

 tions 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 this was effected. They 

 said that they administer the caterpillar itself in com- 

 bination 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. arbor escens). This is particu- 

 larly 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, A maryllis 

 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 poisoned arrow-wounds. It is probable 

 that he derived his knowledge from the natives as I did, 

 and that the reputed efficacy of the balsam is owing to its 

 fatty constituent. 



In cases of the bites of serpents a small key ought to be 

 pressed down firmly on the wound, the orifice of the key 



