THE SERPENT KIND. 



727 



mal's history are those that first excite our at- 

 tention ; find these it is every historian's busi- 

 ness to display. 



When we come to compare serpents with each 

 other, the first groat distinction appears in 

 their size; no other tribe of animals differing 

 so widely in this particular. What, for in- 

 stance, can be so remotely separated as the 

 Great Liboya of Surinam, that grows to thirty- 

 six feet long ; and the Little Serpent, at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and the north of the 

 river Senegal, that is not above three inches, 

 and covers whole sandy deserts with its multi- 

 tudes ! This tribe of animals, like that of 

 fishes, seems to have no bounds put to their 

 growth : their bones are in a great measure 

 cartilaginous, and they are consequently capa- 

 ble of great extension : the older, therefore, a 

 serpent becomes, the larger it grows ; and as 

 they seem to live to' a great age, they arrive at 

 an enormous size. 



Leguat assures us, that he saw one in Java, 

 that was fifty feet long. Carli mentions their 

 growing to above forty feet ; and we have now 

 the skin of one in the Museum, that measures 

 thirty-two. Mr. Wentworth, who had large 

 concerns in the Berbices in America, assures 

 me, that, in that country, they grow to an 

 enormous length. He one day sent out a 

 soldier, with an Indian, to kill wild fowl for 

 the table ; and they accordingly went some 

 miles from the fort : in pursuing their game, 

 the Indian, who generally marched before, 

 beginning to tire, went to rest himself upon 

 the fallen trunk of a tree, as he supposed it to 

 be ; but when he was just going to sit down, 

 the enormous monster began to move, and the 

 poor savage perceiving that he had approach- 

 ed a Liboya, the greatest of all the serpent 

 kind, dropped down in an agony. The 

 soldier who perceived at some distance what 

 had happened, levelled at the serpent's head, 

 and, by a lucky aim, shot it dead : however, 

 he continued his fire until he was assured that 

 the animal was killed ; and tlwm going up to 

 rescue his companion, who was fallen motion- 

 less by its sii'e, he, to his astonishment, found 

 him dead likewise, being killed by the fright. 

 Upon his return to the fort, an i telling what had 

 happened, Mr. Wentworth ordered the animal 

 to be brought up, when it was measured, and 

 found to be shirty-six feet long. He had the 

 skin stuffed, and thea sent to Europe, as a 



present to the Prince of Orange, in whose 

 cabinet it is now to be seen at the Hague ; 

 but the skin has shrunk, by drying, two or 

 three feet. 



In the East Indies they grow also to an 

 enormous size ; particularly 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 Ephemcrides, 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 ser 

 pent 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 

 instantly began to wrap it round with its 

 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 struggled 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 male- 

 factor on the wheel, and the whole body re- 

 duced to one uniform mass, the serpent un- 

 twined its folds to swallow its prey at leisure. 

 To prepare for this, and in order to make the 

 body slip down the throat more glibly, 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 least resist- 

 ance; while its length of body was dilated to 

 receive its prey, and thus took in t once a 

 morsel that: was three times its own thickness. 

 We are assured by travellers, that these ani- 

 mals are often found with the body of a stag 

 in their gullet, while the horns, which they arc 

 unable to swallow, keep sticking out at their 

 mouths. 



But it is happy for mankind that the 

 rapacity of these frightful creatures is often 

 their punishment ; for whenever any of the 

 serpent kind have gorged themselves in this 

 manner, whenever their body is seen particu- 

 larly diste.nded with food, they then become 

 torpid, and may lie approached and destroyed 

 with safety. Patient of hunger to a surprising 

 degree, whenever they seize and swallow their 

 prey, they seem, like surfeited gluttons, un- 

 wieldy stupid, helpless, and sleepy : they at 

 that time seek some retreat, where they may 

 lurk, for several days together, and digest their 



