368 TIIfi FARMER AT HOME 



sure. In these countries, therefore, the serpent is too formidable to 

 become an object of curiosity, for it excites much more violent sensa- 

 tions. 



In the East Indies they grow also to an enormous size ; particu- 

 larly in the island of Java, where we are assured that one of them 

 will destroy and devour a buffalo. In a letter printed in the German 

 Ephemerides, we have an account of a combat between an enormous 

 serpent and a buffalo, by a person who assures us that he was himself 

 a spectator. The serpent had, for some time, been waiting near the 

 brink of a pool, in expectation of its prey, when a buffalo was the 

 first that offered. Having darted upon the affrighted animal, it in- 

 stantly began to wrap it round with voluminous twistings ; and at 

 every twist the bones of the buffalo were heard to crack almost as loud 

 as the report of a cannon. It was in vain that the poor animal strug- 

 gled and bellowed ; its enormous enemy entwined it too closely to get 

 free ; till, at length, all its bones being mashed to pieces, like those of 

 a malefactor on the wheel, and the whole body reduced to one uniform 

 mass, the serpent untwined its folds to swallow its prey at leisure. 

 To prepare for this, and in order to make the body slip down the throat 

 more readily, it was seen to lick the whole body over, and thus cover 

 it with its mucus. It then began to swallow it at that end that 

 offered the least resistance ; while its length of body was dilated to 

 receive its prey, and thus took in at once a morsel that was three times 

 its own thickness. f 



Some serpents bring forth their young alive, as the viper ; some 

 bring forth ^ggs, which are hatched by the heat of their situation ; as 

 the common black-snake, and the majority of the serpent tribe. When 

 a reader, ignorant of anatomy, is told that some of these animals pro- 

 duce their young alive, and that some produce eggs only, he is apt to 

 suppose a very great difference in their internal conformation, which 

 makes such a variety in their manner of bringing forth. But this is 

 not the case ; thee animals are internally alike, in whatever manner 

 they produce their young ; and the variety of their bringing forth is 

 rather a slight than a real discrimination. The only difference is, that 

 the viper hatches her eggs, and brings them to maturity within her 

 body; the snake is more premature in her productions, and sends her 

 eggs into the light some time before the young ones are capable of 

 leaving the shell. Thus, if either are opened, the eggs will be found 

 in the womb, covered with their membranous shell, and adhering to 

 each other, like large beads on a string. In the egg of both, the 

 young ones will be found, though at different stages of maturity ; those 

 of the viper will crawl arid bite the moment the shell that encloses 

 them is broken open ; those of the snake are not yet arrived at theii 

 perfect form. 



Father Labat took a serpent of the viper kind, that was nine feeC 

 long, and ordered it to be opened in his presence. He then saw thf 



