OF SERPENTS. 215 



in their stomachs, when killed and opened ; nay, they most 

 frequently are seen to devour each other. 



A life of savage hostility in the forest, offers the imagina- 

 tion one of the most tremendous pictures in nature. In those 

 burning countries, where the sun dries up every brook for 

 hundreds of miles round ; when what had the appearance of 

 a great river in the rainy season, becomes, in summer, one 

 dreary bed of sand in those countries, I say, a lake that is 

 never dry, or a brook that is perennial, is considered by every 

 animal as the greatest convenience of nature. As to food, 

 the luxuriant landscape supplies that in sufficient abundance ; 

 it is the want of water that all animals endeavor to remove ; 

 and inwardly parched by the heat of the climate, traverse 

 whole deserts to find out a spring. When they have discov- 

 ered this, no dangers can deter them from attempting to slake 

 their thirst. Thus, the neighborhood of a rivulet, in the 

 heart of the tropical continents, is generally the place where 

 all the hostile tribes of nature draw up for the engagement. 

 On the banks of this little envied spot, thousands of animals 

 of various kinds are seen venturing to quench their thirst, or 

 preparing to seize their prey. The elephants are perceived, 

 in a long line, marching from the darker parts of the forest ; 

 the buffaloes are there, depending upon numbers for security ; 

 the gazelles, relying solely upon their swiftness ; the lion and 

 tiger, waiting a proper opportunity to seize ; but chiefly the 

 larger serpents are upon guard there, and defend the accesses 

 of the lake. Not an hour passes without some dreadful com- 

 bat ; but the serpent, defended by its scales, and naturally 

 capable of sustaining a multitude of wounds, is, of all others, 

 the most formidable. It is the most wakeful Tilso ; for the 

 whole tribe sleep with their eyes open, and are, consequently, 

 for ever upon the watch ; so that, till their rapacity is satis- 

 fied, few other animals will venture to approach their station. 

 But though these animals are, of all others, the most vora- 

 cious, and though the morsel which they swallow, without 

 chewing, is greater than what any other creature, either by 

 land or water, the whale itself not excepted, can devour, yet 



