286 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



instantly disappeared. Piggott attended to the wounded 

 man. 



In riding in the neighbourhood, through the tall dry 

 grass, Avhich would often rattle in the wind, I was 

 amused to find that, if I suddenly heard the sound, I 

 was apt to stand alertly on guard, quite unconsciously 

 and instinctively, because it suggested the presence of a 

 rattlesnake. During the years I lived on a ranch in the 

 West I was always hearing and killing rattlesnakes, and 

 although I knew well that no African snake carries a 

 rattle, my subconscious senses always threw me to atten- 

 tion if there was a sound resembling that made by a 

 rattler. Tarlton, by the way, told me an interesting 

 anecdote of a white-tailed mongoose and a snake. The 

 mongoose was an inmate of the house where he dwelt 

 with his brother, and was quite tame. One day they 

 brought in a rather small puff-adder, less than two feet 

 long, put it on the floor, and showed it to the mongoose. 

 Instantly the latter sprang toward the snake, every hair 

 in its body and tail on end, and halted five feet away, 

 while the snake lay in curves, like the thong of a whip, 

 its head turned toward the mongoose. Both were 

 motionless for a moment. Then suddenly the mon- 

 goose seemed to lose all its excitement ; its hair 

 smoothed down ; and it trotted quietly up to the 

 snake, seized it by the middle of the back — it always 

 devoured its food with savage voracity — and settled 

 comfortably down to its meal. Like lightning the 

 snake's head wliipped round ; it drove its fangs deep 

 into the snout or lip of the mongoose, hung on for a 

 moment, and then repeated the blow. The mongoose 

 paid not the least attention, but went on munching the 

 snake's body, severed its backbone at once, and then ate 

 it all up, liead, fangs, poison, and everything, and it 



