As the Bushmen have the reputation of curing the wounds of this poison, I asked how this was effected.  They said that they administer the caterpillar itself in combination with fat; they also rub fat into the wound, saying that “the N’gwa wants fat, and, when it does not find it in the body, kills the man:  we give it what it wants, and it is content:”  a reason which will commend itself to the enlightened among ourselves.

The poison more generally employed is the milky juice of the tree Euphorbia (’E. arborescens’).  This is particularly obnoxious to the equine race.  When a quantity is mixed with the water of a pond a whole herd of zebras will fall dead from the effects of the poison before they have moved away two miles.  It does not, however, kill oxen or men.  On them it acts as a drastic purgative only.  This substance is used all over the country, though in some places the venom of serpents and a certain bulb, ‘Amaryllis toxicaria’, are added, in order to increase the virulence.

Father Pedro, a Jesuit, who lived at Zumbo, made a balsam, containing a number of plants and castor oil, as a remedy for poisoned arrow-wounds.  It is probable that he derived his knowledge from the natives as I did, and that the reputed efficacy of the balsam is owing to its fatty constituent.

In cases of the bites of serpents a small key ought to be pressed down firmly on the wound, the orifice of the key being applied to the puncture, until a cupping-glass can be got from one of the natives.  A watch-key pressed firmly on the point stung by a scorpion extracts the poison, and a mixture of fat or oil and ipecacuanha relieves the pain.

The Bushmen of these districts are generally fine, well-made men, and are nearly independent of every one.  We observed them to be fond of a root somewhat like a kidney potato, and the kernel of a nut, which Fleming thought was a kind of betel; the tree is a fine, large-spreading one, and the leaves palmate.  From the quantities of berries and the abundance of game in these parts, the Bushmen can scarcely ever be badly off for food.  As I could, without much difficulty, keep them well supplied with meat, and wished them to remain, I proposed that they should bring their wives to get a share, but they remarked that the women could always take care of themselves.

None of the men of our party had died, but two seemed unlikely to recover; and Kibopechoe, my willing Mokwain, at last became troubled with boils, and then got all the symptoms of fever.  As he lay down, the others began to move about, and complained of weakness only.  Believing that frequent change of place was conducive to their recovery, we moved along as much as we could, and came to the hill N’gwa (lat. 18d 27’ 20” S., long. 24d 13’ 36” E.).  This being the only hill we had seen since leaving Bamangwato, we felt inclined to take off our hats to it.  It is three or four hundred feet high, and covered with trees.  Its geographical position