Dr. Eldridge, Formerly Of Hakodate, Obtained A Small Quantity Of
The Poison, And, After Trying Some Experiments With It, Came
To the
conclusion that it is less virulent than other poisons employed for
a like purpose, as by the natives
Of Java, the Bushmen, and certain
tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco. The Ainos say that if a man is
accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow the only cure is immediate
excision of the part.
I do not wonder that the Government has prohibited arrow-traps, for
they made locomotion unsafe, and it is still unsafe a little
farther north, where the hunters are more out of observation than
here. The traps consist of a large bow with a poisoned arrow,
fixed in such a way that when the bear walks over a cord which is
attached to it he is simultaneously transfixed. I have seen as
many as fifty in one house. The simple contrivance for inflicting
this silent death is most ingenious.
The women are occupied all day, as I have before said. They look
cheerful, and even merry when they smile, and are not like the
Japanese, prematurely old, partly perhaps because their houses are
well ventilated, and the use of charcoal is unknown. I do not
think that they undergo the unmitigated drudgery which falls to the
lot of most savage women, though they work hard. The men do not
like them to speak to strangers, however, and say that their place
is to work and rear children.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 340 of 417
Words from 93317 to 93568
of 115002
