246 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
From the roots of a creeper, called letaegaera by 
the Angoni, the natives extract a most virulent 
poison, which will prove fatal in about an hour, the 
effects of the poison being peculiar in that, prior to 
death, it causes paralysis of the nerve centres 
affecting speech. 
Another largely used poison is distilled from the 
blossom of the strophanthus shrub, the natives about 
Lake Nyassa calling it combe. An infinitesimal 
dose of this drug is used in European medicine as 
a cardiac stimulant. 
That great enemy of the native, the crocodile, 
also adds indirectly to its list of native victims by 
its own death, for its gall, when dried in the sun 
and pulverized, makes a most deadly poison. 
There are many poisons used by the natives for 
their arrows, poisoned stakes, etc., but of all these, 
by far the most deadly is that obtained from the 
ujungu tree. This tree, found chiefly in the Mhega 
district of the Wangindo country, German East 
Africa, is of a peculiar whitish colour, and of so 
deadly a nature that only certain natives will 
venture to cut it, for a splinter causes terrible 
inflammation and often proves fatal. It seems as 
if Nature has mercifully restricted these trees to 
very distinct localities, and, unlike other trees, 
they are neither plentiful nor beautiful. This being 
so, natives will travel hundreds of miles to purchase 
