34 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
states that snakes never throw more than two coils round their 
prey. This is not true. The number of coils depend upon the 
size of the victim. The constricting power of snakes is very 
great. J have held Mole Snakes by the neck between my finger 
and thumb, allowing them to throw their coils round my wrist. 
Within five minutes the hand would grow cold and numb, the 
blood circulation having been almost entirely stopped by the 
pressure of the snake’s constrictor muscles upon my wrist. The 
constricting power of the African Python is tremendous. I have 
seen a Duiker Buck squashed by a Python into a sausage-like 
shape within ten minutes. 
So rapidly is the victim seized and constricted that the eye ~ 
can barely follow the various movements. The snake remains 
quite motionless until the prey is within striking distance. Then, 
with a movement so rapid that the eyes can but distinguish a 
sort of blur, the serpent seizes its victim, had next instant its 
coils are doing their deadly work. 
So swiftly and silently does a snake strike and constrict, that 
the nimble quick-witted rat and mouse, or the active bird are 
powerless to escape. I have frequently seen House Snakes seize 
mice which were leaping past them at top speed. 
Hearing a squeak under the table when I was once having my 
evening meal, I looked to see what was the matter. A House 
Snake had seized and was constricting a mouse. For years I 
kept these House Snakes, which are quite non-venomous, in my 
house, not only because I was fond of harmless snakes, but because 
they were of practical use, for those snakes were better than any 
house cat in keeping down the mice. Finding my House Snakes 
too small to tackle big rats, I tamed a Mole Snake, and let him 
loose under the floor. Within a month the rats had evacuated 
the premises. After I was married, my snaky pets had to go, 
not because my wife objected, for she knows much about snakes 
and rather likes them, but because we could not manage to keep 
any servants. Theservant class in Natal are kafirs as arule, and 
allraw kafirs have a holy horror of snakes. It is of no use trying to 
convince them that any snakes are harmless. To them the bite 
of a snake is thought to be death for certain, unless some kafir 
‘“mooti”’ is taken. 
One day we were feeding a captive Python. It was rather 
a bulky fellow, a little over sixteen feet in length. One man held 
