ABORIGINAL TRIBES: THE CENTRAL SAKAl. 
53 
two real poisons, the ancJiar and the strychnine, depend 
for their snccess upon their freshnesSj upon the skill with 
which they are prepared, and upon the amount that 
is injected into the wound. Moreover, the quality of the 
strychnine varies, as all plants vaiy, with the elevation 
at which it is grown, so that the great reputation of 
tribesmen like the Mai Bertak is due to the height at 
which they live and not to any special skill possessed by 
them in preparing the poison. Again, the blow-pipe has 
no great propulsive force. Signor Cerruti's suggestion^ 
that a true Sakai can send a dart through a man's body 
is incredible on the face of it, and can be disproved by a 
study of the dart itself. Very near the point of the 
dart will be seen a little notch cat in the wood. Tim 
notch is made in order that the point may break oif and 
remain in the wound. There are technical terms in 
Central Sakai both for the point that adheres and for 
the part that breaks off, so that the notching is not the 
work of one or two men only. This practice would be 
useless if the dart penetrated to a depth of more than a 
quarter of an inch into the wound ; and the stories of ita 
passing through a man like a bullet may be put aside as 
tbe figments of a very lively imagination. But for small 
birds, mice, rats, squirrels and even monkeys a good 
brew of Sakai poison may be effective enough. 
The Mai Bar at are excessively unclean in their * 
personal habits. Even their apologist, Signor Cerruti, 
admits this discreditable trait in their character. But 
there are degrees of uncleauliness; and the Mai Damt^ 
filthy as they are, shudder at the dirtiness of the Mai 
Miloi who ape credited with living on the vermin in 
each otber*s hair. It sounds rather paradoxical to add 
' He mak^H it from hearsay und uot on Mb own authority. 
