POISONED WOUNDS. — LANGUAGE. 
581 
had any efficacy, could hardly bring it into action. But as it is a 
well established fact, that the mind, through the medium of the in- 
numerable nerves which pervade every part of the animal system, 
acts in many cases more powerfully upon the body than medicines, 
it is not improbable that these charms and amulets, however ridi- 
culous they may appear in our better judgment, may have often a 
useful, and more than imaginary, effect on those who have faith in 
them. These pretended healers do not deserve even the name of 
empirics, since their practice does not appear to be guided even by 
observation or experience. For the cure of inflammatory affections 
of the eye, which at particular seasons are very prevalent, they are 
said to use no application whatever. 
There are, however, some few rules which, though now followed 
as custom, may have formerly been the result of more observant 
men. Their mode of arresting the progress of the poison in wounds 
from the arrows of the Bushmen, as it was related to me, is not un- 
reasonable, though rather rude : it consists in scarifying the flesh 
around the wound with long and deep gashes. It is evident, whether 
they know it or not, that by dividing the veins which lead from the 
wound, they intercept the circulation of the blood through that part, 
and, consequently, prevent the poison from spreading. It is proba- 
ble that they also cut out the part immediately surrounding it ; 
although this is merely surmise. But such a method can only be 
successful, where the arrow has not penetrated deeply. Neither the 
Bichuanas, nor the Bushmen, poison their hassagays, and therefore 
the wounds made by them are healed merely by the application of a 
salve compounded of grease, and charcoal reduced to powder. 
Their language, so important and interesting a point in the 
investigation of man in an uncivilized state, so important to the 
philologist as an historical and geographical record, and so interest- 
ing to the philosopher as a picture of the art of speech in a state but 
little beyond its infancy, would seem to claim a more attentive 
examination than it would be convenient, in a work of this nature, 
to bestow on the subject. As far as my researches hitherto, have 
enabled me to make a comparison between the Sichuana and other 
