84 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE ARROW 
made of a strip of the midrib of a palm and this is sharpened 
to a fine point and smeared with poison ; in other examples 
a long, tough thorn, probably from one of the Acacia family, 
is grafted on to the shaft, and one cannot help thinking that 
this use of a pointed stick or an attached thorn goes back 
farther into history than the stone arrow-head, and it certainly 
has survived the latter. For birds, the smaller mammals, 
and even for naked man it would be very effective, the proof 
being that if it was not it would have died out. If my premise 
is correct and this primitive arrow preceded the stone arrow- 
head, then it is probable that the use of poison goes back a 
very long way in time, as the efficiency of this class of arrow 
depends so much on its being poisoned. 
The next stage is when this wooden point is made detachable. 
This was really a great stride, for it economises labour. Upon 
Wooden Arrow-head mimetic of Acacia Thorn. Kavirondo< 
impact it is the point of an arrow wTiich suffers, and it is easier 
to fashion a new point than entirely make a new arrow. It 
is also closely associated with the use of poisoned points, for 
when an animal is shot it is followed, the shaft falls off and 
is generally picked up by following the tracks of the animal, 
the poisoned point remains in the wound and is also eventually 
recovered. 
The most primitive type of detachable point is, as is to 
be expected, a wooden one, and in East Kavirondo these are 
common ; they are slightly bulbous at the base, and it is believed 
mimic an acacia thorn, which is frequently of the same shape ; 
the inference is that the acacia thorn itself was first used, but 
being rather fragile it was superseded by a point whittled out of 
tough wood, but the original shape was preserved and survives 
to the present day. 
A little later some one discovered that an improvement 
was advisable and small lateral barbs were carved on the 
wooden point. Attention became concentrated on the barbs 
and the bulbous shape disappears. A Kikuyu arrow may, 
