A TUG OF WAR. 141 



confidence, and again and again did we renew our futile at- 

 tempts to haul it out. We had yet to learn the mighty 

 muscular power of the creature, which had now withdrawn 

 some of its coils farther back into the den, thereby giving 

 them additional purchase. We had, however, so far suc- 

 ceeded, that several feet of its length were now exposed 

 to view. 



A shot would in all probability have induced it to relin- 

 quish its hold. But had I fired at random into the hole, I 

 must have torn and disfigured its beautiful new coat (it was 

 evidently the original owner of the cast-off one), which I 

 wished if possible to secure uninjured as a specimen ; and a 

 wound near the tail might not have altogether disabled it. 

 I therefore refrained from shooting until a more favourable 

 opportunity should offer. 



We continued to dig and scrape with our sticks and hands 

 at the hole our operations being sometimes interrupted by 

 the startling presence of the creature's head, which it occa- 

 sionally poked towards the entrance ; and from the lively 

 manner in which it kept darting out its little forked tongue, 

 it seemed to be gradually awakening to a sense of its im- 

 pending danger. It still, strange to say, allowed the few 

 feet of its tail we had managed to expose to lie outside the 

 hole a fact for which I cannot account, except by suppos- 

 ing the snake to have been too sluggish to withdraw it. 



At last the elephant and tools arrived, when a bright 

 idea struck us, we might draw it out with the elephant ! 

 Sufficient rope for the purpose was loosened from the ele- 

 phant's pad. This rope, which was made of cotton, and 

 about the thickness of a man's thumb, was hitched round 

 the snake's tail, and its remaining length brought up again 

 to the pad and fastened there, thus doubling its strength, 



Now came the tug of war ! A sudden jerk might have 

 torn the skin ; the mahout was therefore warned to put on 

 the strain gradually. Little did we know what a tough and 

 an obstinate customer we had to deal with. Tighter and 



