40 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
One day I witnessed a fearful scene. A man, a native 
of Goree, an island on the coast of Senegambia, who had 
the reputation of being a snake-charmer and was then 
at the Gaboon, had succeeded in capturing one of these 
large naja. He was a bold man, and prided himself on 
never being afraid of any snake, however venomous the 
reptile might be; nay, not only was he not afraid of any 
of them, but he would fight with any of them and get 
hold of them. 
I had often seen him with snakes in his hands. He 
was careful, of course, to hold them just by the neck be- 
low the head, in such a manner that the head could not 
turn on itself and bite him. | an 
That day he brought into a large open place, perfect- 
ly bare of grass, one of these wild naja that he had just 
captured, and was amusing himself by teasing the horrid 
and loathsomé creature when I arrived. It was a huge 
_ one! < 
Most of the people of the village had fled, and those 
natives who like myself were looking on, kept a long 
way off. Nota Mpongwe man, not a single inhabitant of: 
the whole region I have explored, would have ever 
dared to do what the Goree man did. 
Two or three times, as the snake crawled on the 
ground, we made off in the opposite direction with the 
utmost speed, myself, I am afraid, leading off in the 
general stampede; though I had provided myself with a 
gun. ; 
It was perfectly fearful, perfectly horrid and appalling 
to see that man making a plaything of this monster; 
laughing, as we may say, at death, for it could be noth- 
ing else, I thought. 
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