AN EXCITING INCIDENT. 279 
Consequently, that night there was much feasting and _beer- 
drinking in the kraal. 
AN EXcITING INCIDENT. 
A friend of mine, who was formerly a magistrate in a certain 
part of South Africa, was rather interested in snakes, so much so 
that he collected the venom from every poisonous snake he killed. 
He used small-pox vaccine tubes for storing it in. 
Being in a country district, he always kept a good supply of 
small-pox vaccine’ on hand for the use of the District Surgeon 
when periodically vaccinating the natives of the district. It 
seems that it was a constant source of annoyance to his wife 
to see his private office in such an untidy condition. One day, 
when her husband was away on a hut-tax collecting tour, she 
thought she would give him a pleasant surprise on his return ; 
so she had his office thoroughly cleaned up—its first cleaning for 
years. Of course, she did not know the difference between snake 
venom and small-pox vaccine, so she mixed the lot together. 
Next morning the District Surgeon turned up, helped himself 
to some tubes of small-pox vaccine from the box, and went off. 
In a week’s time, the magistrate returned. He was duly informed 
of the visit of the medical man, but attached no importance to 
the incident. Several days later he killed a large Cobra, and, 
collecting its venom on a bit of glass, proceeded to his office to 
put it into one of the phials, and found they had vanished. 
Rushing off with more haste than dignity, he inquired of his 
wife if she had seen them. “Oh yes!” said she. “I put them 
all together! They are in the drawer with the rest.’”” Then the 
magistrate’s hair stood on end, and a cold sweat broke out from 
every pore. He was speechless. Regaining his senses he dashed 
off to the office, and tremblingly examined the contents of the 
drawer. Unfortunately, he could not remember how many 
phials he had which contained snake venom. He knew by this 
time the District Surgeon would have done all his vaccinating, 
and therefore it was useless to take any steps. Besides, he did 
not know where the medical man was. He told me that for a 
couple of weeks he lived in a state of nervous dread and mental 
agony unspeakable. However, not hearing of any mysterious 
deaths among the Kafirs of the district, he grew calmer. He says 
