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greatest of all the serpent kind, dropped down in an agony. 

 The soldier who perceived at some distance what had hap- 

 pened, 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 then going up to 

 rescue his companion, who was fallen motionless by his side, 

 he, to his astonishment, found him dead likewise, being killed 

 by the fright. Upon his return to the fort, and telling what 

 had happened, Mr. Wentworth ordered the animal to be 

 brought up, when it was measured, and found to be thirty- 

 six feet long. He had the skin stuffed, and then sent to 

 Europe, as a present to the Prince of Orange, in whose cabi- 

 net 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 Ephemerides, 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 

 serpent 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 twist- 

 ings ; 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 enor- 

 mous enemy entwined it too closely to get free ; till at length, 

 all its bones being mashed to pieces, like those of a malefactor 

 on the wheel, and the whole body reduced to one uniform 

 mass, the serpent untwined 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 resistance ; while 

 its length of body was dilated to receive its prey, and thus 

 took in at once a morsel that was three times its own thick- 



