[For some details as to the use of the Upas poison, and an analysis of the Arrow-poisons of Borneo by Dr. L. Lewin (from Virchow's Archiv. fur Pathol. Anat. 1894, pp. 317-25) see Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, ii. 188 seqq. and for superstitions connected with these poisons, Skeat, Malay Magic, 426.]
c. 1330.—"En queste isole sono molte cose maravigliose e strane. Onde alcuni arbori li sono ... che fanno veleno pessimo.... Quelli uomini sono quasi tutti corsali, e quando vanno a battaglia portano ciascuno uno canna in mano, di lunghezza d'un braccio e pongono in capo de la canna uno ago di ferro atossiato in quel veleno, e sofiano nella canna e l'ago vola e percuotelo dove vogliono, e 'ncontinente quelli ch'è percosso muore. Ma egli hanno la tina piene di sterco d'uomo e una iscodella di sterco guarisce l'uomo da queste cotali ponture."—Storia di Frate Odorigo, from Palatina MS., in Cathay, &c., App., p. xlix.
c. 1630.—"And (in Makasser) which is no lesse infernall, the men use long canes or truncks (cald Sempitans—see [SUMPITAN]), out of which they can (and use it) blow a little pricking quill, which if it draw the lest drop of blood from any part of the body, it makes him (though the strongest man living) die immediately; some venoms operate in an houre, others in a moment, the veynes and body (by the virulence of the poyson) corrupting and rotting presently, to any man's terrour and amazement, and feare to live where such abominations predominate."—Sir T. Herbert, ed. 1638, p. 329.
c. 1631.—"I will now conclude; but I first must say something of the poison used by the King of Macassar in the Island of Celebes to envenom those little arrows which they shoot through blowing-tubes, a poison so deadly that it causes death more rapidly than a dagger. For one wounded ever so lightly, be it but a scratch bringing blood, or a prick in the heel, immediately begins to nod like a drunken man, and falls dead to the ground. And within half an hour of death this putrescent poison so corrupts the flesh that it can be plucked from the bones like so much mucus. And what seems still more marvellous, if a man (e.g.) be scratched in the thigh, or higher in the body, by another point which is not poisoned, and the still warm blood as it flows down to the feet be merely touched by one of these poisoned little arrows, swift as wind the pestilent influence ascends to the wound, and with the same swiftness and other effects snatches the man from among the living.
"These are no idle tales, but the experience of eye-witnesses, not only among our countrymen, but among Danes and Englishmen."—Jac. Bontii, lib. v. cap. xxxiii.
1646.—"Es wachst ein Baum auf Maccasser, einer Cüst auf der Insul Çelebes, der ist treflich vergiftet, dass wann einer nur an einem Glied damit verletzet wird, und man solches nit alsbald wegschlägt, der Gift geschwind zum Hertzen eilet, und den Garaus machet" (then the antidote as before is mentioned).... "Mit solchem Gift schmieren die Bandanesen Ihre lange Pfeil, die Sie von grossen Bögen, einer Mannsläng hoch, hurtig schiessen; in Banda aber tähten Ihre Weiber grossen Schaden damit. Denn Sie sich auf die Bäume setzten, und kleine Fischgeräht damit schmierten, und durch ein gehöhlert Röhrlein, von einem Baum, auf unser Volck schossen, mit grossen machtigen Schaden."—Saar, Ost-Indianische Funfzehen-Jahrige Kriegs-Dienste ... 1672, pp. 46-47.
1667.—"Enquiries for Suratt, and other parts of the East Indies.
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"19. Whether it be true, that the only Antidote hitherto known, against the famous and fatal macassar-poison, is human ordure, taken inwardly? And what substance that poison is made of?"—Phil. Trans. vol. ii. Anno 1667 (Proceedings for March 11, 1666, i.e. N.S. 1667), d. 417.
1682.—"The especial weapons of the Makassar soldiers, which they use against their enemies, are certain pointed arrowlets about a foot in length. At the foremost end these are fitted with a sharp and pointed fish-tooth, and at the butt with a knob of spongy wood.