18G9.] The Malay Archi;pelago. 169 



noise of the evening before was now explained. A python had 

 climbed up one of the posts of the house, and had made his way 

 under the thatch within a yard of my head, taking up a comfortable 

 position in the roof — and I had slept soundly all night directly 

 under him. 



" I called to my two boys who were skinning birds below, and 

 said, 'Here's a big snake in the roof;' but as soon as I had shown it 

 to them they rushed out of the house and begged me to come out 

 directly. Finding they were too much afraid to do anything, we 

 called some of the labourers in the plantation, and soon had half-a- 

 dozen men in consultation outside. One of these, a native of Bouru, 

 where there are a great many snakes, said he would get him out, and 

 proceeded to work in a business-like manner. He made a strong 

 noose of rattan, and with a long pole in the other hand poked at the 

 snake, which then began slowly to uncoil itself. He then managed 

 to slip the noose over its head, and getting it well on to the body 

 dragged the animal down. There was a great scuffle as the snake 

 coiled round the chairs and posts to resist his enemy, but at length 

 the man caught hold of its tail, rushed out of the house (rimning so 

 quick that the creature seemed quite confounded), and ti*ied to strike 

 its head against a tree. He missed however, and let go, and the snake 

 got close imder a dead trunk. It was again poked out, and again the 

 Bouru man caught hold of its tail, and running away quickly dashed 

 its head with a swing against a tree, and it was then easily killed with 

 a hatchet. It was about twelve feet long and very thick, capable of 

 doing much mischief and of swallowing a dog or a child." * 



Mr. Bickmore's python story is reserved as the crowning 

 sensation, the honne-houche, of his work. This snake did not come 

 upon him unawares ; he had it presented to him in a cage, from 

 which it escaped, and on searching for it, he found it coiled up in 

 the ship's boat, on the deck of the vessel in which he was sailing. 

 According to his account, aU about him were cowards, he alone a 

 hero ; and the story of the death-struggle, though intended to be 

 thrilling, is amusing in the extreme. It is illustrated by a plate, 

 in which the hero is figured, apparently in his night costume (but 

 that is explained), wielding an axe, and the fierce monster, with 

 extended jaws, is about to dart upon him, whilst nine sailors and 

 ofiicers are looking on as unconcernedly as though they were wit- 

 nessing a game of billiards. To add to the horror of the tale, 

 " the first mate armed himself with a revolver," and every moment 

 the hero expected to hear a report, and find himself shot by some 

 of the braves behind him ! "I felt the blood chill in my veins as 

 for an instant we glanced at each other's eyes, and both instinctively 

 realized that one of us two must die on the spot."t 



Strange biological phenomenon ! Here we have the sudden 

 chilhng of the sanguineous fluid of a warm-blooded animal, bring- 



* Wallace, vol. i., p. 46G. f Bickmore, \>. 541, 



