268 
TRAVELS IN 
had coiled itfelf five or fix times round the body of a lizard. 
As I was endeavouring to fet at liberty the captive animal, one 
of the Hottentots took out with the point of a ftick, from the 
fhort ftem of his wooden tobacco pipe, a fmall quantity of a 
thick black matter which he called tobacco oil. This he ap- 
plied to the mouth of the fnake while darting out its tongue, as 
thefe creatures ufually do when enraged. The effedl of the 
application was inftantaneous almoft as that of an eledric 
Ihock. With a convulfed motion, that was momentary, the 
fnake half untwifled itfelf, and never ftirred more ; and the 
mufcles were fo contracted that the whole animal felt hard and 
rigid as if dried in the fun. The Hottentots confider the oil of 
tobacco among the moft adive of poifonous fubftances ; but it 
is never applied to the points of their arrows, being probably of 
too volatile a nature to retain its deleterious quality for any 
length of time. 
In the courfe of our long hunting excurfions, feveral kraals, 
or dwelling-places of Bosjefmans, had been feen, but all of 
them deferted ; and from many circumftances it was evident 
that moft of them had recently been evacuated. Their inha- 
bitants, no doubt, had fled at the appearance of fo large a party 
of Europeans, which they could confider in no other light than 
that of an enemy. The commandant now announced to his 
people, that for a time all hunting parties muft be fufpended, 
and that the fame regular order and obedience to commands 
fhould be obferved as in their ufual expeditions. He affured 
us that unlefs this plan was adopted we might pafs through the 
heart of the Bosjefinans' country without feeing a human 
creature, 
