30 
JOURNEY FROM BEAUJ'ORT TO [182d. 
make use of no form or ceremony at their mar- 
riages, if marriages they can be called. The 
men have frequently four or five wives, and often 
exchange wives with each other. 
One peculiarity in the conduct of the Bushmen 
is deserving of notice : Mr. Smit had always 
found, if he committed any thing to their care, 
that they were faithful to the trust ; but whatever 
was locked up, and not committed to their charge, 
they would steal if they could. 
The Bushmen here, as in all other parts, put 
poison on the points of their arrows. Mr. Smit 
was once wounded by one near the heart. He hap- 
pened at that time to have a pamphlet of twenty 
or thirty pages in his vest pocket, through which 
the arrow went, and entered his body ; but, to 
the astonishment of every one, he recovered. 
The strongest poison used by the Bushmen, he 
said, was taken from the yellow serpent, the head 
of which they cut off, and extract the two bags 
of poison that lie under the upper jaw-bone. The 
substance thus obtained soon hardens, and is 
pounded with some of the red stone which they 
use, mixed with grease, to smear their bodies. 
The juice of the Illiteris bulb is then added, and 
with this composition they prepare their arrows. 
The wound of an arrow, thus poisoned, is mortal. 
The black poison taken from rocks, which was 
