TRAVELS IN 
inclined to tliink that, as it grows old, this 
poifon lofes much of its ftrength, notwith- 
ftanding the trial made of it in the king's 
garden at Paris^ the fuccefs of which may 
be warranted. But thefe poifons, as I have 
already faid, do not refemble one another : 
that which Mr. Condamine brought with 
him, on his return from Peru, does not efta- 
blifh a law for Africa. Befides, it is an ex- 
periment which might eafily be repeated in 
the prefence of fcientific men; fince I have 
in my colledion, befides other arms, a quiver 
filled with thefe arrows, which I took from 
one of the Bolbmen Hottentots, during an 
aflion in which I faved my own life at the 
expence of his. 
Their bows are proportioned to their ar- 
rows, and are not above two feet and a half, 
or at mod three feet, in length: the firing is 
formed of inteftines. 
The aflagay is generally a very feeble wea- 
pon in the hands of a ^^ottentot; but, be- 
fides this, as its length renders it not dange- 
rous, for ft may be feen cleaving the air, it 
is not difHcult to avoid it. Beyond the dif- 
tance of forty paces, the perfon who darts it 
is not fare of hi^ aim, although the Jflotten- 
tots 
