Note 18 — Chapter XXI
Reading edition
Poisoned arrows are used chiefly in war. The poison, which is said to be very deadly, is prepared from a shrub called koona, (a species of echites) which is very common in the woods. The leaves of this shrub, when boiled with a small quantity of water, yield a thick black juice, into which the Negroes dip a cotton thread; this thread they fasten round the iron of the arrow, in such a manner that it is almost impossible to extract the arrow, when it has sunk beyond the barbs, without leaving the iron point, and the poisoned thread, in the wound.