358 LEAVES FROM THE 



suddenly bringing round his head to the front, he sprang out at 

 us like an arrow, with his immense and hideous mouth opened to 

 its largest dimensions, and before I could get out of his way, he 

 was clean out of his hole, and made a second spring, throwing 

 himself forward about eight or ten feet, and snapping his horrid 

 fangs within a foot of my naked legs. 



Very fortunate for Mr. Gumming it was that the 

 serpent did not succeed in fastening on him : if it had 

 done so, he would most undoubtedly have been encircled 

 in its deadly embrace. Once within the constricting 

 folds, Kleinboy would hardly have succeeded in extricat- 

 ino- him alive, and we might never have seen one of the 

 most stirring books published of late years. Our Nim- 

 rod, however, sprang out of his way, and getting hold of 

 the green bough he had cut, he returned to the charge : — 



The snake now glided along at top speed : he knew the ground 

 VA'ell, and was making for a mass of broken rocks, where he would 

 have been beyond my reach, but before he covdd gain this place of 

 refuge I caught him two or three tremendous whacks on the head. 

 He, however, held on, and gained a pool of muddy water, which 

 he was rapidly crossing when I again belaboured him, and at length 

 reduced his pace to a stand. We then hanged him by the neck to 

 a bough of a tree, and in about fifteen minutes he seemed dead, 

 but he again became very troublesome during the operation of skin- 

 ning, twisting his body in all manner of ways. This serpent 

 measured fom-teen feet. 



There is no amount of torture that man — ay, and 

 woman too, will not inflict on an animal that does not 

 cry out. If the eels, which the fish-wife or the cook 

 skins with so much unconcern, could express their 

 agonies audibly, nothing would induce either of those 

 delicate females to continue the horrible and merciless 

 operation; but the eels are mute, and suffer accordingly. 



Two works of art, ancient and modern, rise before us : 

 one in all the simplicity and purity of marble ; the other 

 glowing with all the enchantment of colour. In the one, 

 the agonized priest of Apollo and his hapless children 

 vainly struggle in the folds of the serpents : — 



