Note 92 — Chapter XXI · RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND INDUSTRIES OF THE MANDINGOES.

Poisoned arrows are used chiefly in war. The poison, which is said to be very deadly, is prepared from a shrub called koono (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.