96 



of the water and a short convulsive struggle. We row rapidly 

 to the place and the boatmen pick up, very cautiously, a fine 

 young alligator,** three feet seven inches in length, with a bullet 

 hole under the left eye. He is hoisted in and the men prepare 

 to batter his head to pieces. This, however, is forbidden, but 

 although the babichelooks dead enough, yet as every one knows, 

 his kind have a trick of temporarily recovering from their Avounds 

 and snapping right and left, As this one has particularly long 

 and iigly teeth his jaws arc tied up before depositing him in the 

 recess forward. We proceed more slowly and Avithin the next 

 few minutes a lovely heronf falls a victim to my companion's 

 marksmanship, but some distance in shore. This entails a stop- 

 page of some duration, it being neccesary to cut a path with a 

 cutlass to where it lies before it can be secured. Shortly after- 

 wards another bird of the same kind is espied, this time on a 

 dead trunk a little way in the bush and we back water to get a 

 better view. " M-m-y Fa-der !" An exclamation of horror from 

 the men — a shout of delight from ourselves, " Shoot him Sah 

 — he bad fellow," cries Beaton, the bow oar, who precipitately 

 rises from his thwart to come aft out of harm's way — " Him 

 bad, shoot him." " Shoot him ! Not I," replies Urich, " a 

 pretty innocent thing like that — besides, we are after the heron." 

 But the heron has disappeared. The men appear to be hardly 

 able to move and cannot withdraw their eyes fi'om that slender 

 streak of pale yellow which is hanging from the topmost branch 

 of yonder pick-mock palm ; slowly and gracefully it turns its 

 small head and brilliant eyes this way and that as if ad- 

 miring its exquisite colouring of bronze green and yellow, its 

 symmetry of form mirrored in the water beneath it. Surely the 

 serpent chosen by the Evil One as his disgiiise when he tempted 

 our Mother Eve was a Yellow Machete:!: the progenitor of the 

 perfect beauty before us and not the clumsy heavy boa usually 

 represented in the paintings and drawings of that unfortunate 

 event — no other snake would have been listened to for a moment 

 by our Universal Mother. But the snake has to be caught and 

 our reflections as the Tempter and Eve and all the rest of the 

 Biblical narrative vanish under the thought of the difficulty 

 of such a feat. " Now then you two, come aft and mind you do 

 as your told ; don't bother about the snake — he is our concern. 

 We are going to catch it," says Urich decisively. " Oh, no, Sah, 

 look at trouble noo ; we came to shoot babiche Sah. an' no catch 

 snake sah ; him 'ting yo' Sah ; bcs' wa}' shoot he Sah,'' half 



* jilligator sclerops Court. f Ardea ccerulea. 



J Herpetoilryas caiinatus — now alive and well in the Zoological 

 Gardens, London. 



