ve they there? It is two Bushmen prisoners. Now,
Hans, there _is_ danger for us. See you what they will do?"

"The rascals--yes, they have made the Bushmen understand that unless
they shoot us with their poisoned arrows they will be themselves
assagied. Now we must shoot straight for our lives, indeed. Down,
Victor, under cover," shouted Hans, and both men dropped behind their
barricade just before two poisoned arrows flew over them, and struck the
rock behind.

"The Schelms are behind trees, Victor. We shall find it hard to get a
shot at them. We must watch and wait for our chance. We must shoot the
Bushmen, for no Matabili can handle their weapons. Let us kill them,
and we shall have escaped our most threatening danger."

The thorough Bushman of Africa is the most formidably armed man amongst
the aborigines. The Amakosa or Kaffir tribes on the eastern frontier of
the Cape Colony have for their national weapon the light throwing
assagy. This is a spear about six feet in length, an iron head about
one-third or one-fourth the length being inserted into a wooden handle.
An expert Kaffir will throw one of these assagies with precision about
eighty yards, and with sufficient force to penetrate a man's body at
that distance.

The Zulu Kaffir and the Matabili use the heavier assagy, which is not so
much suited for throwing, but is more fitted for close quarters, and is
mainly used as a weapon for stabbing. Both this and the lighter assagy
of the Amakosa are far less deadly than is the tiny arrow of the
Bushman. The Bushman's arrow is about two feet long, the haft is made
of reed, the end of the arrow is made either of hard wood or bone. This
end is merely inserted into the hollow reed, and can be taken out and
reversed if required, so that a Bushman places the poisoned end of his
assagy in a reed-sheath as it were, until it is required for use, when
he reverses it, and thus keeps the poison fresh.

The poison itself is said to be a combination of animal, vegetable, and
mineral poison. The animal is procured from poisonous snakes, many
species of which are common in the country inhabited by Bushmen, among
these the cobra, puff-adder, ring-hals, etc., being numerous. The
vegetable is obtained from roots known to the Bushmen, and of species of
the cactus. The mineral is supposed to be some preparation of copper,
which the Bushmen find in the country; but about, this composition there
seems considerable unce