Page:Omniana 2.djvu/270

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260
OMNIANA.

ing a desert in time of drought, with a large party of his converts, they travelled till the third day without finding a drop of water. At length they came to a very small pool, just sufficient to assuage their own thirst, but not that of their animals. A girl was just going to drink, "when, he says, to our great mortification, we perceived that it had been poisoned by the Boschemen, for we discovered many heads of serpents swimming in it. Water thus poisoned will soon cause a person who has drunk it to become so giddy that he cannot walk upright, and if an antidote be not speedily administered, he will certainly expire in a few hours. It is however true, that Boschemen, being properly prepared, will drink the poisoned water without prejudice to their health[1]."

If this excellent Missionary had said that he himself saw such an effect pro-

  1. Transactions of the Missionary Society, Vol. 2, p. 34.