They are very careful in cleaning their nails after working with it, as a small portion introduced into a scratch acts like morbid matter in dissection wounds.

The agony is so great that the person cuts himself, calls for his mother's breast as if he were returned in idea to his childhood again, or flies from human habitations a raging maniac.

The effects on the lion are equally terrible.

He is heard moaning in distress, and becomes furious, biting the trees and ground in rage.
As the Bushmen have the reputation of curing the wounds of this poison, I asked how this was effected.

They said that they administer the caterpillar itself in combination with fat; they also rub fat into the wound, saying that "the N'gwa wants fat, and, when it does not find it in the body, kills the man: we give it what it wants, and it is content:" a reason which will commend itself to the enlightened among ourselves.
The poison more generally employed is the milky juice of the tree Euphorbia ('E.