150 TRAVELS IN 
equilateral triangle ; and the fame ftring of finews that bound 
this tight to the bone, ferved alfo to contain the poifon between 
the threads and over the furface, which was applied in the con- 
fiftence of wax or varnifh. The ftring tied in alfo at the fame 
time a piece of fharp quill pointed towards the oppofite end of 
the arrow, which was not only meant to increafe the difficulty 
of drawing it out, but alfo to rankle and tear the flefh, and to 
bring the poifon more in contadl with the blood. The whole 
length of the arrow was barely two feet. There are feverai 
plants in South Africa from which the Hottentots extraifi their 
poifons by macerating the leaves or branches, and infpiifating 
the juices, either by boiling or by expofure to the heat of the 
fun ; but the poifon taken from the heads of fnakes, mixed 
with the juices of certain bulbous-rooced plants, is what they 
moftly depend upon. This party of old men had killed a 
hartebeeft with a poifoned arrow by wounding it in the thigh. 
The animal had run about half an hour after receiving the 
wound before it fell. They immediately cut away the flefh 
round the wound, when it has been made with a poifoned 
arrow, and fqueeze out the blood from the carcafe, in which 
ftate they know from experience that the flefh taken into the 
ftomach will do them no injury. 
• The ancient manners and primitive character of this extra- 
ordinary race of men are, no doubt, much changed fmce their 
connedion with the colonifts j and the nearer they are found 
to the capital and the parts moft inhabited by Europeans, the 
lefs they retain of them. If at any time they compofed 
focieties governed by laws, fwayed by cuftoms, and obfervant 
of 
