CHAP. II.] 
EFFECTS OF POISONED ARROWS. 
91 
on a belt which is worn round the loins, like those in 
the Shir tribe ; thus the toilette is completed at once. 
It would be highly useful, could they only wag their 
tails to whisk off the flies which are torments in this 
country. 
The cattle are very small; the goats and sheep are 
quite Lilliputian, but they generally give three at a 
birth, and thus multiply quickly. The people of the 
country were formerly friendly, but the Khartoumers 
pillage and murder them at discretion in all directions ; 
thus, in revenge, they will shoot a poisoned arrow at a 
stranger unless he is powerfully escorted. The effect 
of the poison used for the arrow-heads is very extra¬ 
ordinary. A man came to me for medical aid; five 
months ago he had been wounded by a poisoned arrow 
in the leg, below the calf, and the entire foot had been 
eaten away by the action of the poison. The bone 
rotted through just above the ankle, and the foot 
dropped off. The most violent poison is the produce 
of the root of a tree, whose milky juice yields a resin 
that is smeared upon the arrow. It is brought from a 
great distance, from some country far west of Gon- 
dokoro. The juice of the species of euphorbia, common 
in these countries, is also used for poisoning arrows. 
Boiled to the consistence of tar, it is then smeared 
upon the blade. The action of the poison is to corrode 
