The substances added to the ipok—with the exception of the arsenic—are not toxical but are only the expression of Sakai prejudices.
The flesh of animals killed with arrows dipped in ipok are perfectly eatable after being cooked a little, but the precaution must be taken of cutting away for about an inch round the wound which turns purple immediately from the action of the poison.
An antidote against ipok poisoning is found in the juice of a climber called lemmak kapiting. By energetically rubbing the wound with this juice all baneful effects of the ipok are checked.
I believe that it is amongst creepers that the most powerful poisons must be sought.
The Sakai is on confidential terms with the giù u legop, giù u labor, giù u lampat, giù u masè and the giù u loo, but the lampon and broial are not forgotten either.[20]
The roots of these two plants yield poisons that are amongst the most terrible of those which abound in the forest.
It seems to me that the only difference passing between these creepers is in the intensity of virulence, but not in the nature of the venomous substances, and it is just for this that the Sakais favour the legop and make it the centre of their primitive chemical studies because it furnishes them with the strongest and most fatal of poisons.
This parasite, as soon as it is long enough, clings to one of the superb vegetable kings of the forest, twining round it with a tenacious hold.
Its trunk is from 2 to 4 inches in diameter and gives vigorous life to about 5000 feet of its offspring.