Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/411

 Pringle, to consist of the venom of the most dangerous serpents that infest the desert. In seizing and extracting the poison from beneath the fangs of the fatal puff-adder, or the cobra-di-capello, the despised African displays the most wonderful dexterity and boldness; simply placing his naked foot on the neck of the writhing reptile, and not unfrequently closing the exhibition of his intrepidity by fearlessly swallowing the contents of the bag he has extracted, as a supposed antidote, or rather as an effectual charm against the deleterious consequence of the venom, should it ever be accidentally brought into contact with his blood. Being of itself too thin and volatile to retain its powers long unimpaired, this animal poison is skilfully concocted into a black glutinous substance, by the due admixture of powerful vegetable and mineral poisons; the former being generally obtained from the root of a species of amaryllis, called by the colonists the gift-bol, or poison-bulb; whilst the latter is an unctuous or bituminous substance, which is said to exude from certain rocks and caverns that exist in particular parts of the Bushman's country."

On the mountain we found the ornithogalum, the star of Bethlehem, in abundance; it was like a weed in the garden. The ferania was there, with its spider-like flower; and the oxalis (woodsorrel), with its most brilliant pink flowers; the name of the enormous bulb I was unable to discover. The Australian pine was in great beauty in the garden; also the melaleuca kȳápootie, with its most curious bark. When you tear off a part of it you may separate it into layers as fine as gold-beaters' skin, and it is of the same colour. Another sort has a coarser bark, and is used to cover hooq[)u] snakes in India; fire-screens are made of this bark in America, and ingeniously ornamented with beads. The Zamia longifolia and the grass tree are distorted-looking productions, holding in outward appearance the same place amongst plants as a man afflicted with elephantiasis does amongst human beings. The bottle brush tree was in full bloom. The garden is very well worth visiting; the gardener is civil and intelligent.

5th.—I started to walk to the Plaat Clip, or flat stone; it is