METHODS OF POISONING AND CHABMS 5 



and virous smell. Abdala took up a long, thin kriss, 

 touched the side of it with the lime, then spread it over 

 with the white powder and squeezed a little of the citron 

 juice upon it ; this being done, he exposed it to the 

 heat of the sun and when the blade was quite dry, he 

 took up the black extract and put a small quantity of 

 it upon the part which had previously been covered 

 with lime, touching it lastly with the coco-out oil. 

 He then proceeded to prepare the other side of the 

 kriss in the same manner, and to convince me that he 

 perfectly understood the whole affair, he wounded a 

 fowl which died a short time afterwards. The white 

 substance was, I found, a mixture of arsenic, and the 

 extracted matter \vas from the bark of the meni- 

 spermum coculus ; the poisonous properties of the kriss 

 were, probably, owing principally to the latter mgre- 

 dient " (Bef, 7). The wi'iter w^as shrewd in his inference 

 if it is correct, Menispermum cocculus is Anamirta 

 cocculus, Lion., Menispermaceae (Cocculus Indicus or 

 Levant nut), w^hieh used to be used by poachers in 

 ** foxing " fish. It contains the poisonous principle 

 picrotoxin, a crystalline substance, easily absorbed 

 through the skin, discovered in the seeds by Boulay in 

 1812. Two powdered seeds (0^24 G.) or 0 03 G. of 

 , picrotoxhi are fatal doses ui man. Though Anamirta 

 cocculus extends southwards from South India to New 

 Guinea, in the Malay Peninsula, Anamirta Louveisi 

 takes its place. 



Sometimes the blade of the kris is dipped in human 

 urine with the idea of rendering penetration of the 

 steel more easy when attacking a so-called invuhierable 

 man. Even to-day Malays still think that certaui 

 persons can acquire impenetrability of the skin to shot 

 and steel by means of some very powerful charms. 

 About Lwenty-eight years ago, a notorious Malay 



