Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-12-19
EAST AFRICAN DRUGS.
VEGETABLE POISONS USED FOR
AMOUNTING SPEARS AND ARROWS.

A Running Plant Whose Active Prin-
ciple Is Similar to Strychnine-The
'Poison Tree"-Narcotic Indulgence
Confined to Tobacco.
OF curative drugs the east African
manifests but little knowledge. Near
Lake Ugombo small wild aloe, when
the green skin has been peeled off, forms
an ice cold and healing application to
burns; and in the neighborhood OF OAR
es-Salaam highly aromatic plant, with
hairy purple stalks, called arcaZa-
mudi, is reputed a good native cure for
pains in the stomach. The Somalis &C.
casionally eat the 10 al variety Of dragons
blood, resin of acidulous flavor obtained
from the moli tree Drac, ona schizantha)
Between Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam &C.
ours a creeper with bean like, hairy, S
shaped pods having severe singing pow
ers; it is about four inches long, Of yell
lowish brown color, and is called upupu.
The pain yields to cowdung and wood
ashes. In the same region broad blsded
grass called mwanga mwitu enjoys some
fame as styptic.
ARROW PoIsoNs.
Arrow poiSons come much more prom-
nently within the range Of native study,
and most tribes use some description OF
vegetable poison for amounting their
spears and AFRO VS.. The most important
is a species of Strophanthus, either S.
hispidus OF S. kombe, which will proba-
bly, prove to be the sole source Of this class
Of poison used on the eastern coast, from
Zanzibar to Somali land and even far into
the interior. The plants runner, bear
ing large, rough ribbed leaves arranged
in clusters of three or four together.
Each shoot consists of three branches, or
which one bears the seed and the other
two the leaves. The flower is yellow,
with curiously tailed petals. The seed
has the form Of a huge military frog
button, with lobes nine inches long, and is
the direct source Of the poison. This, ac-
eording to st. Vincent ErSkine, is called
umtsuli in GAIA or southern Mozambique,
and is so energetic that men wounded by
arrows in the fleshy part Of the leg have
been known to die within thr"e hours,
and with small bucks the poison takes
effect before they can run out OF sight.
He likens the active principle to strych-
nine.
These facts quite accord with the de-
scription given by R. W. Felkin and A. w.
Gerard of the poison used by the Waniks
and Wakamba tribes, west Of Mombasia,
except that several roots are supposed to
contribute to the deadly effect. These
authors mention an antidote composed OF
sundry roots reduced to charcoal which,
however, proved failure on trial. Care
full investigation Of the umtsuli reveals
the fact that it is a powerful cardiac
poison, as powerful as digitalin and more
powerful than veratria when injected
under the skin. But IL causes only
nausea. vomiting and some weakness
when taken by the mouth,
TIE "PoIsoN TREE"
The tesh Of animals killed by this
poison is eaten by the blacks without ill
effects. Probably identical with this IS
the "poison tree, " from the roots Of which
the natives of Somali land extract black
and pitchy substance for poisoning their
arrows Perhaps, also, the pitch like
poison obtained from the boiled down
bark of a tree used on the Ruff river for
application to arrows, lances and even
bullets, and the muavi or poisonous de-
coction Of the bark of tree employed in
the trial by ordeal Of the natives of the
Nyassa and Zambesi valley, is the same
article under another guise.
Indulgence in narcotics appears TO be
confined to tobacco, which is very COM
monty grown under cultivation. 1t is n
special product of the Handel district.
whence considerable quantities Of the sun
dried leaf, beaten into little round fiat
cakes about two inches in diameter, are
sent down to Pangani for export.
The tobacco is coarse and strong but OF
fairly good flavor. The Kiswahili use
water pipes Ckiko) made Of gourds Of vari-
GUS shapes. They swallow the fumes in
smoking and seem to enjoy the paroxysm
OF coughing which results. -Juurnal
Society Of Arts.