Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-08
POISONED ARROWS
OBTAINED FROM RATTLEsNAKEs.
The Serpents Are Caught In the Arizona Deserts, Where Their Poison Is Most
 Powerful.

plains of soutta tern Arizona for some two years before I could find out how the Appaches poison their arrows up," said Henry Sampson, in telling of his experi- ence at the Hotel Palomares the other evening.
 Mr Sampson has been in the Indian service, a ranchman in Arizona, and a railroad surveyor in the territory for fif- teen years.
 "The Indians" he continued. inherit from their ancestors an intense secre- tiVeness as to the manner of preparing venom for hunting or Warlike purposes. A tribal chief years ago would as soon think of cutting off his own head as to let another chief know some method peculiar to the tribe of preparing powerful poison Now that the saNages use fire arms almost To the exclusion of their primitive weapons, the older warriors will not, if they can, allow Information concerning their tribal manufacture of venom to become known among the pale faces. l had in my employ a bright young Indian buck who gave me full in formation concerning the way the plains Indians have for many generations made poisOns for their arrows. One day he went so far as to get permission for me to go over to the mountains to see tribe of Yavapis get their weapons in proper poisonous condition, just as they used to do when about to start upon the war path.
 "Rattlesnakes are the chief element in the p0sions of the Apache and Piute Indians. To see the savage prepare the poisons and try their efficiency on him. self Is enough to distress even a front iersman's dreams. The bloated rattle snake of the hot alkili desert of Arizona or the Panhandle of Texas makes the most powerful poison. There is no more hideOus and deadly serpent in America than the bloater rattler. It is terror even to an Apache Indian, and if there is one thing that is worse than rattle snake in the opinion of plainsmen and settlers in eastern Texas and southern Arizona it is an Apache Indian. The Piutes although a more cowardly gang than the Apaches, hold this bloated rat tlesnake in less horror but they give it plenty of room. The Flutes draw on the snake for their poison after the reptile is dead. The Apache in spite of their fear of the snake, make it contribute it's ven om to them while it is alive.
 "The rattlesnake of the Arizona desert grows to a length of six feet, and attains a girth of five inches at the thickest part. They have tremendous sets of rattles. l saw one once that was over five feet long and had twenty-three rattles in it, and heard of snake being killed that had string of twenty-seYen rattles. The head of the desert rattler is an enormous tri- angular thing, often five inches long, from the thin neck to the blunt nose, and three inches wide measuring at the base of the jawbone This snake has fangs an inch long, and is frequently fitted with two sets The poison Sacs at the base of these fangs are as big as a hazelnut The snake is bright yellow in color.
 "The desert rattlesnake is a dreadful enough customer any day in the year, but during August takes on the fullness of it's frightfulness, both in appearance and in conduct. About the middle of August, when the weather is insuHerably hot this snake becomes bloated from some cause until 1t is third larger than its normal size. Its appearance Is as if the snake had been blown up like blad- der or charged with gas like balloon. This rattler is always sluggish and slow in its movements, and, like all of it's kind, usually makes an effort to get out of the way of intruders But in August it simply lies still in bloated repulsiveness and will not move for anything, being ready al all times to strike at everything that comes near it. At that time of year 1t is simply a swollen reservoir of venom, and its bite will then even send an Apache Indian to the happy hunting grounds, and quickly at that
 "A Piute Indian, who wants to lay in a stock of poison for his arrows, kills at this time of year enough of these rattle snakes for his purpose. He cuts off thelr heads and takes them to his lodge. He places in one of the rude earthen vessels that are among the Piute household ef- fects ten or dozen of these snake heads. To them he adds perhaps a pint of tar antula killers as the big hairy Texan or Mexican spider is called; or, rather, he puts the abdomen of the spider in With the snake heads. This spider has sting that injects a poison powerful enough ao kill almost instantly tarantula, which Is itself about as poisonous a member or the animal kingdom as one would care to meet. The poison sac of the tarantula killer is in the lower abdomen Of the ln- sect and it is this that the Piute brave mixes with his rattlesnake heads. He then pours in pint of water, seals the lid of the vessel on with moist clay, and places the vessel in a pit where he has made a bed of red-hot coals. He burieS the vessel in these coals, and besides that builds blazing fire on top of 1t. This fire is kept burning fiercely for several hours when it is swept away, and the Indian digs his vessel out of the coals. With long pole he knocks the lid off. and does not venture near the pot until the steam that arises from 1t entirely ceases to appear
 After the fiery ordeal to which the snake heads are put, brownish resi- dunn is found a the bottom of the ket- tie. That is certainly the double quintes- sence of poison, if it's action on human blood, or, at least, Indian blood, Is any in- dication. The Piute always tests this poison before trusting his arrows to it.. He cuts a gash in the fieshy part of his leg and draws the blood, which he allows to trickle down his leg. When the red stream has run down six or seven inches he dips stick into the poison and touches it to the lower end of the bloody streak. If the poison is all right it actually burns the blood almost like hot iron touched to water, and rapidly runs up the trickling stream. The Indian has his knife ready and scrapes the poisonen blood off dry. If 1t was permitted to reach the wound it would be all up with the Piute. The arrows are dipped into the poison, and the Indian feels that whatever such an arrow hits had much better not have been born.
 .'The Apache collects his poison in a much simpler way. Dreading the Staked Plain rattlesnakes as he does, he never theless makes 1t his business to go among them at the very time they are most deadly. He places the liver or heart of deer freshly torn from a victim some times not yet dead. in front of snake, within easy striking distance. The snake protests against the presence of the ob- ject and quickly sinks it's fangs into 1t again and again. In few seconds the heart or liver will take on a purpliSh