1844.] Note on the Mijjertkeyn Somalees. 327 



nerally being preferred, and are carefully avoided if possible. During 

 their debates, quarrels almost invariably arise, daggers are bran- 

 dished, spears poised, and a stranger would expect an immediate con- 

 flict, but the old men generally step in and prevent the parties from 

 injuring each other, by taking away their arms, which after a decent 

 show of reluctance are given up with much secret satisfaction, as the 

 necessity for fighting " a Voulrance" is thus avoided; their arms are two 

 light spears, and a shield of rhinoceros or bull's hide, with a long 

 straight double-edged dagger. Numbers of the lower class of Bedouins 

 carry a bow and quiver of poisoned arrows, and some few are to be 

 seen with marvellously ill-looking swords. Matchlocks being beyond 

 their reach, they affect to despise, as cowardly, weapons that kill from 

 a distance ; that very quality, however, considerably enhanced the res- 

 pect paid to our rifles and double-barrelled pistols; and one of the chiefs 

 was so captivated with a revolving 6-barrelled pistol belonging to an 

 officer of the Constance, that he offered him a horse in exchange. 



Their arrows are tipped with an iron head, just below the barb of 

 which they fasten a black glutinous substance made of the pounded 

 bark of a tree and the white milky juice of one of the Cactus tribe, 

 which forms a deadly poison. I made many fruitless efforts to procure 

 a specimen of this tree, which grows chiefly in the lofty ranges of the 

 Jibel Wursungeli. 



Armed with these tiny weapons, like the Bushman of South Africa, 

 the Bedouin posts himself in a thick bush near the haunts of the large 

 antelope, called here the gurnook. A companion with a camel 

 takes a wide circuit, looking out carefully for game, which when he 

 sees, he contrives to drive up by degrees towards the ambush, always 

 taking care to keep under the lee of the camel. The antelope disliking 

 a camel, gradually retreats without being alarmed until within 20 feet 

 of the bush, when the spin of the unerring arrow through the shoulder 

 brings down the quarry, which dies in three minutes. In this way the 

 Bedouins frequently provide themselves with an abundant supply of 

 fresh meat ; many of these antelopes weighing 70 and 80 pounds. 



The effect of this poison on a man is the dropping off of his hair 

 and nails, and his speedy death. The deep excisions and sears from 

 burning that are so common on the limbs of the men, sufficiently 

 attest the dread in which they hold this deadly poison. The instant a 



