THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



shaped dark brown bands, with ends pointing backward, 

 while the rest of the body is more of an ash-gray hue. The 

 body ends in a short tail, which is exceedingly small in 

 comparison with the size of the reptile. 



This reptile seems to frequent not only sandy places, 

 but also wooded country and forests. Very little authentic 

 information is obtainable about the puff adder, but the 

 natives of different districts have told me that it has a most 

 curious way of striking what it wants to kill. Living on 

 the smallest animals, he does not hesitate to attack horses, 

 cattle, and even man, and its poison is so deadly that the 

 largest animal will succumb a few hours after it has been 

 bitten by a full-grown snake. People are said to die within 

 a very few minutes from the time of the inoculation. I 

 have killed two puff adders, both of which were lying near 

 cattle-paths; and, strangely enough, both with their tails 

 close to the path and the rest of the body forming almost 

 a right angle with the same. The natives told me that 

 they do this because, when they strike, they first lift the 

 tail-end of the body and then, throwing this quickly down 

 upon the ground, swing their heads around in a semicircle, 

 thus striking the victim unexpectedly. Whether it is 

 so or not is impossible to say, but I have heard this twice 

 affirmed by different natives of widely separated districts. 



In the southern part of Africa the natives feel very 

 happy when they are able to locate a puff adder, for, after 

 they have killed it, they extract the poison from its head 

 and dip the points of their arrows in the deadly substance 

 for the purpose of using them to kill both human enemies 

 and wild beasts. Fortunately, the puff adder is not as com- 

 mon in British East Africa as it is in Uganda. In this 



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