An Alkaloid Has
Been Obtained From It Similar To Strychnine.
There is no doubt that
all kinds of wild animals die from the effects of poisoned arrows,
except the elephant and hippopotamus.
The amount of poison that this
little weapon can convey into their systems being too small to kill
those huge beasts, the hunters resort to the beam trap instead.
Another kind of poison was met with on Lake Nyassa, which was said to
be used exclusively for killing men. It was put on small wooden
arrow-heads, and carefully protected by a piece of maize-leaf tied
round it. It caused numbness of the tongue when the smallest
particle was tasted. The Bushmen of the northern part of the
Kalahari were seen applying the entrails of a small caterpillar which
they termed 'Nga to their arrows. This venom was declared to be so
powerful in producing delirium, that a man in dying returned in
imagination to a state of infancy, and would call for his mother's
breast. Lions when shot with it are said to perish in agonies. The
poisonous ingredient in this case may be derived from the plant on
which the caterpillar feeds. It is difficult to conceive by what
sort of experiments the properties of these poisons, known for
generations, were proved. Probably the animal instincts, which have
become so obtuse by civilization, that children in England eat the
berries of the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) without
suspicion, were in the early uncivilized state much more keen.
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