028 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



But Wallace goes beyond Du Chaillu in bis accounts of tbe actual size of serpents 

 existing in tbe almost unexplored Malayan islands. He says :* " One day my boy Ali 

 came home witb a story of a big snake. He was walking tbrough some bigb grass, 

 and stepped on sometliing wbicb be took for a small fallen tree ; but it felt cold and 

 yielding to bis feet, and far to tbe rigbt and left there was a waving and rustling of 

 the herbage. He jumped back in aiiright, and prepared to shoot ; but could not get 





a good view of the creature, and it passed away, be said, like a tree being dragged 

 through the grass. As be bad several times already shot large snakes, which be de- 

 clared were all as nothing compared with this, I am inclined to believe it must have 

 really been a monster. Such creatures are rather plentiful here, for a man close by 

 showed me on bis thigh the marks where he had been seized by one close to bis house. 



* Malay Archipelago, 392. 



