Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1883 — Poisoned Arrows. [ARTICLE]

Poisoned Arrows.

- At a meeting of scientists in Paris an interesting communication was received, from M. Hoffman regarding the methods employed by the North American Indians to poison their arrow points. The Comanches simply pierce the green shell of the “Spanish bayonet” or yucca angustifolia with the points. The Apaches (Cayoters, sic) bruise up the heads of rattlesnakes with fragments of dear’s liver, allow the mass to become putrid, then dip the arrow points, and allow them to dry slowly. The Chinouns (Moquisof Arizona) irritate a rattlesnake until he bites himself, and then dip the point and a portion of the wood of the arrow into the blood of the animal. A wound with one of these arrows generally proves fatal in three or four days, and its action is much more rapid if the stomach of the wounded person is empty at the time the injury is received. Another poison is obtained by irritating bees, shaking the hive, and then killing them when in this state with small branches bunched together. The insects are crushed up in a mass with mortar and pestle, and the arrow points are dipped in the magma. It is probable the active substance in this case consists in the forraic acid contained in the bodies of the bees. This preparation does not cause death, but induces long-continued sickness. Another very active but not fatal poison is prepared from red ants. It produces pain in the pharynx, considerable swelling of the part injured, and sometimes delirum. The patient remains feeble for a month. A firm faith is the best divinity; a good life is the best philosophy; a clear conscience the best law; honesty the best policy, and temperance the best physic.— Charron