184 WHAT WAS IX THE LOCK. 



On approaching the same door the stench was in- 

 tolerable, arid again I asked the boys the cause of 

 the nuisance ; but they persisted in declaring their 

 ignorance concerning the matter. A candle was 

 brought, and I now beheld the origin of all the 

 mischief. About six inches length of the head and 

 body of a young split snake hung out of the key- 

 hole, quite dead; and on taking off the lock, I found 

 the creature twisted into it. It had evidently in- 

 tended to enter the room through the keyhole when 

 I thus accidentally stopped its progress and got 

 bitten ; and considering the deadly poison this ser- 

 pent injects into the wound it inflicts, I felt very 

 thankful to God, my Preserver, that, by sucking 

 the infected blood out of my finger in time, and 

 applying a proper remedy, though ignorant of the 

 cause of the wound, my life was not endangered. 



"Another kind of serpent struck me as a singular 

 species ; it is of a green colour, has a broad head 

 and mouth like a frog, very red eyes, arid its bite is 

 so venomous that I have seen a woman die within 

 half an hour after being wounded. Of other re- 

 markable kinds I will only mention the Whip- 

 snake, which is green, from 4 to 6 feet long, slender, 

 and springs horizontally from tree to tree, whence 

 it is also called Flying Snake. The species known 

 by the name of the Double-headed Snake has not 

 two heads, but is equally thick behind and before, 



