The Fans of Equatorial Africa have a great diversity of arms. “Among the crowd to-day,” says M. Du Chaillu, writing in a Fan village in which he was lodging, “I saw men armed with cross-bows, from which are shot either iron-headed arrows or the little insignificant-looking, but really most deadly poison-tipped arrows. These are only slender reeds, a foot long, whose sharpened ends are dipped into a deadly vegetable poison which these people know how to make. The arrows are so light that they would blow away if simply laid in the grove of the bow. To prevent this they use a kind of sticky gum, a lump of which is kept on the under side of the bow, and with which a small spot in the grove is slightly rubbed. The handle of the bow is ingeniously split, and by a little peg, which acts as a trigger, the bow-string is disengaged, and as the spring is very strong it sends the arrow to a great distance, and, light as it is, with great force. But the merest puncture kills inevitably. They are good marksmen with their bows, which require great strength to bend. They have to sit on their haunches and apply both feet to the middle of the bow, while they pull with all their strength on the string to bend it back. The larger arrows have an iron head something like the sharp barbs of a harpoon. These are used for hunting wild beasts, and are about two feet long. But the more deadly weapon is the little insignificant stick of bamboo, not more than twelve inches long, and simply sharpened at one end. This is the famed poison-arrow, a missile which bears death wherever it touches, if only it pricks a pin’s point of blood. The poison is made of the juices of a plant, which was not shown me. They dip the sharp ends of the arrows several times in the sap, and let it get thoroughly dried into the wood. It gives the point a red colour. The arrows are very carefully kept in a little bag made neatly of the skin of some wild animal. They are much dreaded among the tribes about here, as they can be thrown or projected with such power as to take effect at a distance of fifteen yards, and with such velocity that you cannot see them at all till they are spent; this I have often proved myself. There is no cure for a wound from one of these harmless-looking little sticks--death follows in a very short time. Some of the Fans bore on their shoulders the terrible war-axe, one blow of which quite suffices to split a human skull. Some of these axes, as well as their spears and other iron-work, were beautifully ornamented with scroll-work and wrought in graceful lines and curves, which spoke well for their artisans. [Illustration: Fan Weapons.]