Evening star., 1909-07-11
In Closed Territory
Continued from page 4

worn blunt and smooth IN battles unnumbered
with the doughtiest of his race.
The horns of the younger bull measured
forty-one and one-quarter inches on their
widest spread and twenty-seven and a halt
inches from tip to tip, while the breadth of the
boss was fifteen and one-half inches. The old
bull measured thirty-nine and three-quarters
inches from tip to tip and forty-two inches on
the widest horn spread, with a twelve and
half-inch boss. They showed hard and
long, honorable service, did these old, worn
natures weapons, smooth and polished like
ebony from tip to base by mighty fence, wrench,
and tussle with the best metal of their kind
whereas half the length of the younger bulls
horns were rough corrugated their fine, sharp
points intact.
Carried Poisoned Arrow
RUT the old bull brought me another and
rarer trophy, which prize even more than
his splendid mask and horns. While the men
were working on the head, Judd noticed
small black shaft about the diameter of small
slate pencil standing perpendicularly out OF
his right loin, near the spine and SIX inches IN
front of the hip. Asking the boys whatever
it was, one answered with laugh, Other
hunters have been out long before you, Bwana; ;
but their resas (cartridge) was not so good as
yours. That IS Wanderobo poisoned arrow.
And so indeed it proved when, after five
minutes cutting and tugging, the arrowhead
was withdrawn from the bulls tough back
muscles
1t was a remarkable and probably unparal-
leled example of the great power OF the Wan
derobo bow. From its sharply barbed point to
its base the arrowhead five and half
inches long and four and half inches OF its
length had been driven through the half-lnch
hide and on into the heavy muscles OF the loin
Since it stood perpendiculary in the loin. it
must have been shot into the bull while ne was
passing beneath tree, or when he was drink
ing directly below some overhangIng bank, both
methods of attack fayOrIteS OF the light armed
Wanderobo.
While the Wanderobo poison is deadly to
beasts within five to twenty minutes wher
fresh, applied to arrowheads in this dry climate
it cakes to the hardness of enamel in a few
weeks and becomes harmless. Luckily for the
old bull, it was evidently such an old, olsen
venomed arrow that had, perhaps by mistake
or as the last in the quiver, been driven into
him.
The poison Is made from the bark of a bush
much like laurel which is boiled down until
it becomes thick gu1nmy, concentrated ex-
tract. So prepared, 1T IS thlckly sneared over
the barbed head and three or four inches of the
arrows shank or shaft How the plant IS
known botanically, or whether it IS so known
at all, l am unaware; but 1T bears a purple
fruit, quite the shape and about the size of
small olive, which / understand is not itself
poisonous.
So armed, the Wanderobo tackle and kill any
thing from the tiniest buck up to elephant
Their favorite tactics are silent shot from
brush shelter built within five to ten yards of
much used watering places Such primitive
shooting covers one sees daily above springs and
along streams, in mountains and plains, OF the
Wanderobo country
And precisely as the Wanderobo is an artfu
economist of energy in making his kills, SO also
is he a cunning labor saver in dealing with the
meat he takes; for directly beast is SO struck
off goes runner to whatever nearby forest
glade or bush recess is for the moment harbor-
ing his nomadc. houseless family and kin, and
up they come on a run, young and old, like
ravening wolves, and there stop until no scrap
is left that even a vulture would covet packing
comfortably away in their stomachs what a
white man would first laboriously carry some
where on his back before getting the good OF a
bite of it.
And this particular arrowhead the old bull
carried would plainly have gone much deeper
had it not struck a rib; for as found the thin
head was bent, almost to right angle with its
shank, by contact with bone That it was
very old wound was obvious; for not only was
it entirely healed, barring local irritation about
the head, but in places where the hard black
enamel-like coating of the poison was worn
away, the shank was much r1sted.
Crowdins Records Again
WHILE at the time realized l had superb
w trophy in the head of the younger bull
and fine one in the older bull, never dreamed
was crowding records until on my return to
lula got hold of the fifth edition of Rowland
Wards Records of Big Came" short peru
sal of which showed that of all the best known