yer thofe reptiles fo readily as thofe who confine themfelves to beaten paths. It is feldom they can carry a bed with th em ; and when lying on the ground they are in danger of turning themfelves on thofe venomous creatures, who often creep near the human body for the fake of warmth. It is not uncommon for them to get into beds, as I have myfelf obferved in the Ealt Indies. ! V E G E T A B L E P O I S ON S . '• p H O U G H there are few countries in the world which abound more with deleterious vegetables than the country adjacent to the Cape of Good Hope, yet the principal danger to the traveller refults from the animated part of the creation ; he can always avoid the one, when he cannot apprehend the other. I am only acquainted with four of the former kind, which are commonly employed as inftruments of deftru&ion. The firft is a large bulbous plant, Amaryllis Difticha, which is called Mad Poifon, from the effedts ufually produced on the animals which are wounded by the weapons impregnated with it. The natives prepare this poifon in the following manner : they take the bulbs, about the time when they are putting out their leaves, and cutting them tranfverfly, extradt a thick fluid, which is kept in the fun till it becomes quite of the confiftenee of gum. It is then put up for u fe ; and the method of laying it on their arrows has been already defcribed. * The hunters employ this fpecies of poifon chiefly for the purpofe of killing fuch animals as are intended for food, fuch as Antelopes and other fmall quadrupeds. After they are wounded, they can, and do in general, run for feveral miles'; and it frequently happens that they are not found till the next D a
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