40 MEMOIR OF 



would his master ; and after it was delivered to 

 me, I kept it in a large earthen jar, such as are 

 for keeping the best water for the commanders of 

 ships during their voyages, covering its mouth 

 with two boards, and laying weights upon them. 

 I had it fed every day by the garbage of fowl, &c. 

 put into the jar from the kitchen. Thus it lived 

 for some time, when, being weary of its confine- 

 ment, it shoved asunder the two boards on the 

 mouth of the jar, and got up to the top of a large 

 house, wherein lay footmen and other domestics 

 of her grace the Duchess of Albemarle, who, 

 being afraid to lie down in such company, shot 

 my snake dead.* It seemed, before this disaster, 

 to be very well pleased with its situation, being 

 in a part of the house which was filled with rats, 



* There is a figure given of this snake in vol. ii. plate 

 274 ; and the author, describing it in page 335, says, 

 " They feed on birds, rats, &c. which they swallow 

 whole ; and therefore Nature has given them such a folded 

 or rugous inward tunicle of the stomach, that it may 

 extend and receive things of large dimensions. Many of 

 them have been killed with thirteen or fourteen rats in 

 their bellies. 



'* An Indian brought this figured here, and several 

 others to me. He used to take them behind by their 

 necks, so that they could not bite him ; then he would 

 give them leave to twist themselves about his arm as they 

 pleased. He killed them by putting their tails under his 

 foot, taking them behind their necks, and stretching their 

 back-bones, and twisting and pinching hard their lungs 

 and tracheae artcrice. 



