He is heard moaning in distress, and becomes furious,
biting the trees and ground in rage.
As the Bushmen have the reputation of curing the wounds of this poison,
I asked how this was effected. They said that they administer
the caterpillar itself in combination with fat; they also rub fat into
the wound, saying that "the N'gwa wants fat, and, when it does not find it
in the body, kills the man: we give it what it wants, and it is content:"
a reason which will commend itself to the enlightened among ourselves.
The poison more generally employed is the milky juice
of the tree Euphorbia (`E. arborescens'). This is particularly obnoxious
to the equine race. When a quantity is mixed with the water of a pond
a whole herd of zebras will fall dead from the effects of the poison
before they have moved away two miles. It does not, however,
kill oxen or men. On them it acts as a drastic purgative only.
This substance is used all over the country, though in some places
the venom of serpents and a certain bulb, `Amaryllis toxicaria', are added,
in order to increase the virulence.
Father Pedro, a Jesuit, who lived at Zumbo, made a balsam,
containing a number of plants and CASTOR OIL, as a remedy
for poisoned arrow-wounds.
