Part 27 (2/2)
”It was indeed a most awful sermon after the prayers,” said the Major: ”I trust never to hear such a one again: but is it not our own fault?
This is the second time that one of our oxen has been carried off by a lion, fro properly attended to It is the neglect of the Hottentots, certainly; but if they are so neglectful, we should attend to them ourselves”
”It will be as well to punish the their tobacco for the week; for if they find that we attend to the fires ourselves, they will not keep one in, that you may depend upon However, ill discuss that point to-ht”
O, before the oxen were yoked, to say that the Bushmen had found the lion, and that he was not yet dead, but nearly so; that the anied away that portion of the ox that he did not eat, about half a mile further; that there he had lain down, and he was so sick that he could not ence they uided by the Bushmen, arrived at the bush where the lion lay The Bushmen entered at once, for they had previously reconnoitered, and were saluted with a low snarl, very different froht Our travelers followed, and found the noble creature in his last agonies, his strength paralyzed, and his eyes closed One or two of the s in his hide, and did not appear to have entered more than half an inch; but the poison was so subtle, that it had rapidly circulated through his whole fra down upon the noble beast, it dropped its jaws and expired
As our travelers turned back to join the caravan, Alexander observed: ”Those Bushmen, diminutive as they are in size, and conteerous enemies, when the mere prick of one of their small arrows is certain death What is their poison composed of?”
”Of the venom extracted from snakes, which is mixed up with the juice of the euphorbia, and boiled down till it becolue They then dip the heads of the arrows into it, and let it dry on”
”Is then the venom of snakes so active after it has been taken away from the animal?”
”Yes, for a considerable time after I remember a story, which is, I believe, well authenticated, of a h his boot by a rattlesnake in America The man died, and shortly afterward his two sons died one after the other, with just the sah they had not been bitten by snakes It was afterward discovered that upon the father's death the sons had one after the other taken possession of and put on his boots, and the boots being exa of the rattlesnake was discovered to have passed through the leather and rerazed the skin of the two sons when they put on the boots, and had thus caused their death”
”Are the snakes here as deadly in their poison as the rattlesnake of America?”
”Equally so,--that is, two or three of them; some are harmless The most formidable is the cobra capella (not the sae, being usually five feet long; but it has been found six and even seven feet This snake has been known to dart at a man on horseback, and with such force as to overshoot his aim His bite is certain death, I believe, as I never heard of afrom the wound”
”Well, that is as bad as can be What is the next?”
”The next is what they call the puff adder It is a very heavy, sluggish anith, and when attacked in front, it can notIt has, however, another pohich, if you are not prepared for it, is perhaps equally dangerous --that of throwing itself backward in amanner This is, however, only when trod upon or provoked; but its bite is very deadly
Then two of the erous snakes here Theso easily seen and so easily avoided, is very dangerous, and its bite as fatal as the others”
”I trust that is the end of your catalogue?”
”Not exactly; there is another, which I have specimens of, but whose faculties I have never seen put to the test, which is called the spirting snake It is about three feet long, and its bite, although poisonous, is not fatal But it has a faculty, fro its venom into the face of its assailant, and if the venom enters the eye, at which the anireat many other varieties, so our journey Many of them are venomous, but not so fatal as the first three I havethat the Alressive or fierce,--which they are not Provided, as they are, with such dreadful powers, if they were so, they would indeed be formidable; but they only act in self-defense, or when provoked I may as well here observe, that the Hottentots, when they kill any of the dangerous snakes, invariably cut off the head and bury it; and this they do, that no one may by chance tread upon it, as they assert that the poison of the fangs is as potent as ever, not only for weeks but months afterward”
”That certainly is a corroboration of the story that you told us of the rattlesnake's fang in the boot”
”It is so; but although there are so many venomous snakes in this country, it is remarkable how very few accidents or deaths occur from them I made an inquiry at the Moravian Mission, where these venomous snakes are very plentiful, how many people they had lost by their bites, and theto the Mission, they had only lost twoa space of seven years; and in other places where I made the same inquiry, the casualties were much less in proportion to the numbers”
”Is the boa constrictor found in this part of Africa?”
”Not so far south asare, but it is a few degrees more to the northward I have never seen it, but I believe there is no doubt of its existence”
”The South American Indians have a very subtle poison hich they kill their game Are you aware, Swinton, of its nature? Is it like the Bushht over by Mr Waterton, whose a works you may have read It is called the wourali poison, and is said to be extracted frorows in the country The natives, however, add the poison of snakes to the extract; and the preparation is certainly very fatal, as I can bear witness to”