178 OPHIDIA, BOAD^. 



more and more faint, and at last it expired. The 

 Snake, however, retained it for a considerable 

 time in his grasp, after it was apparently motion- 

 less. He then slowly and cautiously unfolded 

 himself, till the goat fell dead from his monstrous 

 embrace, when he began to prepare himself for 

 swallowing it. Placing his mouth in front of the 

 dead animal, he commenced by lubricating with his 

 saliva that part of the goat, and then taking its 

 muzzle into his mouth, which had, and indeed 

 always has, the appearance of a raw lacerated 

 wound, he sucked it in as far as the horns would 

 allow. These protuberances opposed some little 

 difficulty, not so much from their extent, as 

 from their points; however, they also, in a very 

 short time, disappeared, — that is to say, exter- 

 nally ; but their progress was still to be traced 

 very distinctly on the outside, threatening every 

 moment to protrude through the skin. The vic- 

 tim had now descended as far as the shoulders ; 

 and it was an astonishing sight to observe the 

 extraordinary action of the Snake's muscles when 

 stretched to such an unnatural extent — an extent 

 which must have destroyed all muscular power in 

 any animal that was not, like himself, endowed 

 with very peculiar faculties of expansion, and 

 action at the same time. Wlien his head and 

 neck had no other appearance than that of a 

 serpent's skin, stuffed almost to bursting, still the 

 workings of the muscles were evident ; and his 

 power of suction, as it is erroneously called, un- 

 abated ; it was, in fact, the effect of a contractile 

 muscular power, assisted by two rows of strong 

 hooked teeth. With all this, he must be so 

 formed as to be able to suspend, for a time, his 



