XIIT. SNAKES. 185 



in water to the brim. I gave the ring-hals three good 

 hours to get thoroughly drowned, removed the bricks, 

 took out the box, gently cut the string, lifted the lid and 

 found that I had been drowning with the utmost care an 

 empty cigar-box. It had been securely tied ; and how a 

 creature more than thrice the girth of my thumb had 

 managed to escape was, and still is, a mystery to me. 



I leave the reader to imagine the detailed search of 

 every cranny of our bedroom, on which my wife insisted. 

 For several days every boot had to be hammered with a 

 stick before it was put on ; I stood on a chair and shook 

 every pair of trousers, and other analogous garments, 

 lest they should be already occupied. But no ring-hals 

 was forthcoming. And I suppose it must have been a 

 week or so afterwards that I was summoned to the 

 kitchen to expel an unwelcome intruder the black cook 

 being, so far as her skin permitted, pale with terror 

 which proved to be none other than the missing ring-hals. 

 I despatched him promptly, but not by drowning. 



Both this snake and the cobra are often spoken of by the 

 Dutch colonists of the Cape, as thespuug slang, or spitting 

 snake, from their reported power of forcibly ejecting poison 

 to a distance. This power is often questioned ; but my friend 

 the late H. W. Oakley, a careful naturalist and one who 

 devoted much attention to snakes, assured me that he had 

 himself seen this power exercised. He was digging out a 

 ring-hals from a hole into which it had glided, and having 

 unearthed him, secured the creature by holding him down 

 with the spade about two or three inches from the end of 

 his tail. Quickly he reared himself up, spread his hood 

 widely and struck viciously at his captor, ejecting with 

 great precision and with a smothered hiss some liquid 

 which glistened in the bright sunshine like crystal. Mr. 

 Oakley saw the fluid coming and threw his head backward ; 



