CHAPTER XI 



ARROW POISONS 



Preliminary — Africa — Asia — Philippine Islands — Australasia- 

 America — References. 



PRELIMINARY. 



From time immemorable peoples have used poisons to accentuate 

 wounds made by weapons, especially arrows. In 1857 Fontau 

 discovered some arrow-points in the Pyrenees which were grooved 

 to receive poisons. These discoveries are said to date as far back 

 as the Old Stone Age. 



The arrows of primitive peoples produce wounds which are by 

 no means usually fatal, and therefore, in attacking big game or in 

 warfare, it is obvious that some poison which will insure the death 

 of the victim fairly quickly will be valuable. 



Usually these poisons, or the more potent of them, are only 

 known to the fetish priests or chiefs, and are generally mixed with 

 all sorts of animal extracts, the whole being made into a paste, 

 and painted on the arrow-heads. 



If a special poison is prepared, as a rule some sort of precaution 

 is also taken, so that the owner of the arrow may not be accidentally 

 wounded. Thus, the Fra-Fra people, when preparing against the 

 invasion of their country, obtained a very potent poison, which, 

 however, they handled with great caution, though they boasted 

 that they had an antidote. They kept these arrows, as a rule, in 

 special quivers, and each arrow had a tiny stick tied to its shaft, 

 so that it could be carefully lifted out of the quiver. Moreover, 

 a tuft of red material was tied to the base of each of these sticks, 

 so that there could be no mistake as to which were the specially 

 poisoned arrows. 



Arrow-poisons may be classified into those of animal origin and 

 those of vegetal origm. The most common animal arrow-poisons are 

 snake-venom, scorpions, spiders, red ants, and beetles, crushed and 

 mixed with vegetal poisons. The Bushmen of South Africa and the 

 natives of Togoland make an arrow-poison by burning and powdering 

 the heads of adders and vipers, regardless of the fact that the burning 

 must destroy the venom. The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert 

 make a poison from the larvae of Diamfhidia simplex Paringuey, 

 which is thought to be really a toxin due to some micro-organism 



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