CHAPTER XVI.

POISONED WEAPONS, ARROWS, SPEARS, &c.

{Poisoned arrows.}

The arrows of the South African Bushmen are worthy of notice, not only for the ingenuity displayed in making formidable weapons from such apparently insignificant materials, but for the deadly poison with which in many cases they are imbued. A crooked stick, a few reeds, bits of bone, and the dorsal sinews of any antelope, are all the materials required in the formation of the weapons. The poisoning is sometimes a more elaborate affair. Among the southern tribes, some of whom still maintain an existence as hunters and occasional marauders on the borders of the colony, the juices of the bulbs of various species of amaryllis and hæmanthus, mixed sometimes with serpent poison, and aided by the adhesive acrid juice of the euphorbium, are boiled down in the hollow of a stone to the tough viscous consistency of birdlime, and sparingly smeared upon the arrow heads. Farther to the north the process is much more simple. The Bushmen of the Kalihari Desert, and the regions in the vicinity of Lake Ngami, use the entrails of a grub called 'kaa or ngwa, an almost inarticulate sound, which it is impossible to write so as to enable the English reader to pronounce it with anything like correctness. Both forms of spelling are attempts to indicate a click of the tongue against the teeth, followed by a slight nasal ringing, and ending in the broad sound of the vowel "a." The grub is of a creamy white, and is soft, with the exception of its head; and when full-sized seldom much exceeds three-quarters of an inch in length. It lives chiefly, perhaps almost exclusively, upon the leaf of a tree called "Maruru papeerie," which varies from the size of a small low-growing shrub to that of a moderately-sized tree, upwards of 20ft. high, or 12in. or 14in. in thickness. It is covered with thorns, and its wood in the vicinity of Lake Ngami was soft and of a very even texture; but toward the Zambesi it seemed harder. When we first saw it it was feeding on these leaves, and we were rather puzzled by a loose ragged mantle or envelope of green matter, which seemed to be peeling off like a skin in process of being cast. It lay in loose rolls, mostly parallel to the muscular rings upon the body, and was gradually forced forward, so as to form a hood or shield above the head, where it dried and broke off as it accumulated, and was replaced by fresh matter. Our highest magnifying power was the microscope of a sextant; but this at length enabled us to decide that the green matter was merely excrement issuing not only in the usual manner, but also from pores ranged along the whole length of the body. As the grub attains its full size, this matter issues more sparingly, and is of a browner colour. The grub drops to the ground, buries itself to the depth of a couple of feet, and forms its cocoon of a thin shell of earth, cemented by glutinous juices around its body. This is quite hard enough to bear handling, even rather roughly, so long as it retains its perfect form, and we brought several specimens to England; but if it is once broken, the slightest touch is enough to complete its destruction.

In applying this poison to their arrows, the Bushmen collect a number of the cocoons, which they lay near them on a skin, a leaf, or on a sandal; they break one of these, and, taking out the grub, hold it between the thumb and forefinger, and squeeze the entrails, or rather the internal juices, in small drops upon the arrow head, which is then carefully laid upon any extemporised rest to dry in the sun, much as an artist lays his brushes on something that will keep the hair from contact with anything capable of giving or receiving damage from the colour with which they are charged. They take the greatest possible care not to let these juices come in contact with any cut or sore, or abrasion of the skin, for they would in such case produce the same excruciating agony that is inflicted upon a wounded animal; and it is said that a man with a wound, however slight, so infected, would become a maniac, and would probably destroy himself in the extremity of his pain. It is, however, believed that fat rubbed plentifully on the wound, and taken internally in sufficient quantities, would prove an antidote; but this is a medicine by no means likely to be always at hand among persons living a nomadic life, and but occasionally supplied with animal food like the Bushman. Fortunately for them they possess another remedy, growing plentifully and naturally in most parts of their country. We were aware that they knew of this; and a friend, who had been personally acquainted with the chief for a considerable time, had long attempted to induce him to reveal its name, but he was unwilling to do so, till in a conversation with another member of his tribe he mentioned its name; and our friend, who perfectly understood the Sechuana and some of the other native languages, asked him at the next opportunity if the remedy in question were not the "Kàla haétlwe," and thus surprised him into the confession that white men knew everything, and that further attempts at concealment were useless. The word kala signifies friend, but we are not aware of the meaning of the concluding syllables. The "Kàla haétlwe" is a small, soft-stemmed plant; the flower is yellow, star-shaped, and has five petals; the stamens are numerous, and the calyx is divided into two sepals. The root is something between a bulb and a tuber--rough and brown outside--and, when cut, is seen marked with concentric lines of light reddish brown and purple. The leaves are 2-1/2in. in length, and 1/4in. wide. The mid-rib of the leaf projects on the under surface, and forms a depression on the upper. There are, however, two other plants which bear the same name, and are used for the same purpose. One of them has a broader leaf and larger flower, and tastes like sorrel; and the third has a waved or wrinkled leaf. The root or bulb is chewed and laid on the wound, and is followed by plentiful application of fat.

The natives use an arrow with a bone head dotted over with the ngwa or 'kaa poison, and loosely inserted into the shaft. This is a slender reed, seldom more than 3/8in. thick. It is bound with sinew at the end to keep the head from splitting it, and is also bound for the same purpose near the notch. In fastening this sinew no knots or hitches are used, but the end is frayed out very fine, chewed soft, and, while still soft, is firmly pressed down upon the rest, where its glutinous properties cause it firmly to adhere.

The Bushman makes use of a simple and effectual method of sheathing his arrows, so as to render any accidents impossible. When not intended for use the point is reversed and enters the socket in the shaft.

They make use of a very ingenious expedient for tightening the bowstring. A small knob of hardened sinew is firmly lashed to one end of the bow, the string made of the dorsal sinews of the springbok or other antelope, slightly twisted, has a loop at one end, which is hitched on to the end of the bow; the other is brought up and passed between the knob and the wood, several turns are taken loosely round the latter. When required for use the bow is bent by holding it with the hand and knee, with the action represented in the beautiful statue of Cupid, and then with the other hand turning the coil of sinew around the end of the bow until the string is sufficiently tightened.

They also adopt a very simple plan of preserving an ostrich feather. The Bushman, it may be after weeks or months of patient stalking, kills an ostrich. He knows the feathers are valuable, and that from a white trader he may obtain for them tobacco, clasp knives, tinder boxes, or other articles of value to himself, but he also knows that he must keep them clean and unbroken. He therefore inserts the quill first into a reed, and taps it on the ground till the whole feather has vanished, and he can carry it about in his quiver; and, to say truth, it is at first sight a little astonishing to a European when a Bushman offers for inspection a slender reed, to see him draw from it a gracefully waving ostrich plume of the finest quality and largest size.

The simple apparatus by which the Bushmen obtain fire is shown at page 536. It consists of two sticks of moderately close-grained but not very hard wood. One of these, which may be called the fire stick, is somewhat thicker than the little finger, and may be of any length, generally about 1ft. or 18in., and in this small notches are cut with the point of an assegai, at about 1in. apart, for the reception of the end of the other, or the whirling stick. This is about the size and length of the ramrod of a common fowling piece, and both are carried in the quiver, with their arrows, sucking reeds, and rushes, for the manufacture of bracelets, &c.

The preparation of the wourari poison is usually conducted by natives, from whom it is best obtained. This substance may be at times of service to the explorer. The sumpitans of the Dyaks and Borneans should also be noticed. Mr. Bates says that salt is put on the tongue of the coati as a restorative from the stupor induced by the wourari poison. We have often heard of poisoned bullets, and once saw an experiment tried. A hole was bored in a revolver bullet and filled with the juices of the 'kaa or ngwa--the Bushman's poison grub; this was fired into the rump of an ox; the animal showed little or no sign of acute pain, but seemed to be dull and stupefied for some hours. At length it seemed as if it were likely to recover, and, partly because the flesh was really wanted for food, and partly to end an experiment which seemed likely to lead to no useful result, the poor creature was shot dead. Probably the fire might have neutralised or destroyed the active principle of the poison.

We have heard of some native tribes who prepare arrow poison by first making a hollow nest in the liver of a dead animal. They then fill this with living centipedes, scorpions, tarantulas, and other poisonous creatures. These they irritate by striking the liver with a stick, when the virus of the united assemblage of venom bearers is poured out and at once absorbed by the liver, which is rubbed over the weapon to be treated. The Chinese plunge their arrows in a putrid carcase in order to poison them. The Malays keep their poison preparations strictly secret. Poisoned weapons retain their destructive qualities for years, and should therefore be handled with extreme caution.

A square of paper, folded diagonally across, may be used as a "feather" for a blowpipe arrow. Wild cotton is also used to make the arrow fit the tube.

A cross-bow of peculiar construction is used by the Chinese; the action of the trigger is sufficiently simple to need no explanation, and the chief peculiarity consists in the fact of its having a kind of reservoir above the barrel, in which half a dozen or more arrows or bolts lie one upon the other; this is connected with the barrel only at the foremost end, the string passing beneath it, and the lowermost arrow resting on the string until the bow is bent; then the string being pulled back allows one arrow to drop into its place in the barrel, from which, of course, a sufficient length of the upper part has been cut away to admit of the arrow falling in. When the trigger is pulled, the string drives the lower arrow out from beneath the others; the next arrow then rests on the string, and, when that is again drawn back, drops like the first into the barrel; and so on until all are exhausted, and it becomes necessary to replenish the reservoir.

The pellet bow, the subject of the illustration below, is an instrument with which many tribes make excellent practice with small pellets of hardened clay. For the inexperienced, a padded glove is necessary for the protection of the left thumb, and there is also a peculiar knack in so holding the bow that that arm shall be the merest trifle out of the line of flight of the pellet.

Many semi-barbarous nations are perfectly aware of the advantage to be gained by rifling their arrows, and this is done sometimes by having rather large barbs, and giving them a pitch or turn on opposite sides, or by putting on the feathers spirally.

In using the arrow for the capture of tortoises on the South American rivers, the archers like to shoot at such a distance that they may give their arrow a good elevation, and allow it to fall more perpendicularly on the back of the tortoise, as it has then a better chance of penetrating the shell. It has no barb, as, if its broad point once pierces, there is not much fear of its being dragged out.

A thorn wreath is used by the Uganda and other nations in Central Africa, and is described by Captain Speke. The thorns all point to the centre, and yield just enough to allow an antelope or other animal to put his foot through, when their points are sure to enter the leg, and prevent its coming off. A log is made fast to it, heavy enough to impede the motions of the animal, but not sufficiently so to tear the wreath off from his leg and allow him to get away. Young branches of many kinds of mimosa in South Africa, which have thorns 5in. or 6in. long, would answer well for this. The ancient Romans and Greeks made use of this contrivance in deer hunting.

We remember seeing, several years ago, the foot of a Vaal rheebok encumbered with a joint of the spine of a horse or ox. The poor creature had literally put its foot in it some time before, and had worn the painful appendage till the skin beneath was destroyed and the tendons weakened, which led to its being eventually caught.

{The manufacture of stone weapons.}

Europeans are very rarely reduced to such a state of destitution as to be entirely without some tool or weapon of iron or steel, even if it is merely an old jack knife; yet such cases may, and sometimes do, happen. We remember reading with great interest the tale of two seamen who, during many weeks' sojourn on a small island, possessed absolutely nothing but one knife, which served them to cut up the sea birds they managed to catch, till at length this, having been wrapped in a bloody cloth and carefully stowed away in a crevice of the rocks, was found by some bird, dragged from its hiding place, and irrecoverably lost; then they with great labour beat out and ground down upon the rocks an old spike nail. Under such circumstances, the ability to produce a cutting edge from a flint or other pebble of sufficient hardness would have stood them in good stead; and even, if we remember how often edged tools are spared by using a piece of glass as a scraper, we shall be ready to acknowledge that a keen-edged fragment of flint, obsidian, or agate may advantageously be used in the same manner. Perhaps it may be thought absurd to give directions for the breaking of glass for this purpose, yet, simple as the matter seems, a hint may not be thrown away: Take the back of a knife, or the smooth straight edge of any piece of iron fixed with tolerable firmness for a moment, then, taking the piece of glass in both hands, rest its edge midway between them on the edge of the iron; let the upper edge of the glass lean from you, and push it gently along the iron, so as slightly to indent the edge of the glass; then, reversing its position so as to make it lean towards you, draw it smartly along the iron, and you will find it separated by a clean fracture directly across, forming a line more or less curved, and leaving one edge of the glass much sharper than the other. By a little practice, and by pressing a little more with one hand than the other, almost any curvature that the work to be done may require may be achieved.

In North Australia we had reason to believe that many of the tribes through whose country we passed were utterly ignorant of the use of iron. Fragments of jasper and other stones were found in several localities, where they had evidently been used for cutting up or skinning animals. Spear heads that they had dropped or lost in the chase were occasionally picked up; and once we came across a considerable area profusely strewn with chips of every form and kind, indicating that the manufacture of weapons had been extensively carried on there. Some of these might be relics of antiquity; but those strewn upon the surface over an area of 200yds. or 300yds. were quite recent; while along the river side were holes in the earth surrounded by scorched shells of the freshwater mussel, of the tortoise and turtle, besides bones of fish and alligators, and fragments of charred wood and blackened stones that had been used in cooking. The savages might have been few in number; perhaps in one instance the cooking holes would indicate the presence of twenty or thirty; while, from the number of chips, from six to eight seemed to have been engaged in making weapons; and it must be remembered that, thoroughly as they enjoy the pleasure of doing nothing, they are neither ignorant nor idle when employed either in the chase or in the preparation of snares or weapons for it. Besides this--as only the perfect weapons would be taken away for actual service, and the failures and imperfect ones would far outnumber them--it is easy to imagine how such chips would accumulate during successive generations.

The following explanation of the progress of stone-implement making was given us by a fellow traveller, and our own examination of the fragments on the spot confirmed his statement:--The operator, squatting down before a block large and solid enough to be used as an anvil, selects a pebble as nearly oval as possible, and about the size of an ostrich egg or a cocoanut. One end of this he strikes on the large block, so as to detach a fragment, which leaves a flattened base; then, taking it vertically in his hands, he strikes the edge of this base upon the anvil, detaching in succession two ovate chips as nearly as possible equal in form and size; and this, if cleverly done, leaves a sharp and well-defined central rib, with a slightly hollowed facet on either side. The next blow should, if successful, split off another piece, small at the base, spreading slightly as it goes upwards, and finally tapering to a keen point, with the rib previously formed running truly along the centre; and this chip constitutes the spear head, which is fastened to the shaft with gum and lashings of bark or vegetable fibre. If this is well done, at least three chips must have been made in the production of one head; but if, as is most likely, the failures greatly outnumber the successes, the proportion of chips must be greatly increased. Sometimes, when a pebble is found well suited for the work, facets are struck off on all sides, and spear heads are formed as long as the cleavage of the "core" remains sufficiently perfect. Some of these, when about half worked out, present so great a resemblance to a common beer glass with facets on it, that we hardly know how to convey a better idea of the peculiar form. The stone tomahawks discovered were generally of trap or greenstone. They were first chipped out into a long wedge-like form, and then with great labour ground up to a uniform rounded edge upon other stones, and with gum and lashings securely fixed into a branch, part of which is generally made to bend round them as a handle. Blacksmiths in this country secure their cold chisels much in the same manner.