“Come,” said the little man. “I will show you.”
The Pygmy brought out bows and arrows as well as slender spears so small that Nomusa thought little Themba would have been able to use them.
Nomusa saw that the tiny arrows were made of straight twigs of hardwood cut from a bush. The ends of the arrows were slit and a green leaf was stuck in each, instead of a feather such as the Zulus used.
The man pointed to the tips of the arrows and spears, saying, “Poison!”
“Where do you get the poison?” Nomusa asked.
The Pygmy explained. His people searched for poisonous herbs as well as for poisonous barks of trees. They also got poison from a certain black ant whose bite was terribly painful.
With many gestures, the Pygmy explained how they climbed trees under which they expected elephants to pass on their way to feeding grounds. The men in the trees threw down their poisoned spears on the passing elephants, while Pygmies on the ground shot poisoned arrows at the animals.
If the elephant did not die at once, the Pygmies knew that some of the poison would finally work inside the animal’s body and kill him. They would follow him until he dropped. Usually, he assured them, they did not have long to wait.
Nomusa was still full of curiosity. “Do the boys take care of the cattle as my brothers do?”
The Pygmy looked surprised. “We have no cattle,” he said. “We live by hunting.”