244 Savage's Observations on 



was lost. All was carried home, cooked, and eaten. From 

 the skin was made a soup. I was extremely disgusted at the 

 sight of a man carrying off in his hand, with an air of great 

 satisfaction, a string of the intestines. This and other ser- 

 pents are eagerly sought by the natives for food. 



I have seen two other individuals in the course of the pres- 

 ent year. They were captured by natives who were clearing 

 up their land for rice farms. They were much mutilated by 

 transverse gashes from these " bill-hooks." Three more, I 

 was informed, were found upon the same piece of land, which 

 led the individual to abandon it, from the superstitious notion 

 that it could not yield a crop. 



The next specimen is the one before me. It measured ten 

 feet in length ; is young, and was captured on the 22d Feb- 

 ruary, by my associate, the Rev. Joshua Smith, on the prem- 

 ises of one of our out-stations. His account, in answer to my 

 inquiries, is as follows. 



" I had retired for the night, but was wakeful and unable 

 to get to sleep. About twelve o'clock, I heard Fanny (a fa- 

 vorite dog) barking violently in the girls' school-house. The 

 barking soon ended in a cry of distress. I thought it prob- 

 able that a leopard had attacked her, as they often do carry off 

 dogs and other domestic animals. I went down and walked 

 around the house where there was a hole, affording Fanny in- 

 gress and egress. The moon shone brightly, but I could not 

 see the cause of trouble, nor hear any noise. I called the dog 

 by name, but she did not appear, nor could I hear any thing 

 except what I thought to be the hiss of some ducks, that were 

 shut up there. I opened the door, but still I could see noth- 

 ing. I then went back to my chamber for a lantern, and re- 

 turning, opened again the door, when I discovered the dog in 

 the folds of a serpent, with her back downwards, and seem- 

 ingly motionless. I went back to my chamber for a weapon, 

 and finding only a country dagger, I returned accompanied by 

 some men, and entered the school-house again with the lan- 

 tern in my hand. The serpent was coiled twice or thrice 

 around the dog, his tail grasping the foot of a bench, and his 

 jaws fastened to her throat. His motion in compressing his 



