An Unpleasant Bedfellow. 127 



but they are seldom seen, as they generally wander 

 forth at night. There are marvelous stories of their 

 size ; and my men assured me that they had seen much 

 larger than the snake now mentioned : to me he ap- 

 peared a horrible monster. 



I do not know anything so disgusting as a snake. 

 There is an instinctive feeling that the arch enemy is 

 personified when these wretches glide by you, and the 

 blood chills with horror. I took the dried skin of this 

 fellow to England ; it measures twelve feet in its dry 

 state, minus the piece that was broken from his neck, 

 making him the length before mentioned, of fifteen feet. 



I have often been astonished that comparatively so 

 few accidents happen in Ceylon from snake-bites ; the 

 immense number of these vermin and the close nature 

 of the country making it a dangerous risk to the naked 

 feet of the natives. I was once lying upon a sofa in a 

 rest-house at Kandellai, when I saw a snake about four 

 feet long glide in at the open door, and, as though ac- 

 customed to a particular spot for his lodging, he at once 

 climbed upon another sofa and coiled himself under 

 the pillow. My brother had only just risen from this 

 sofa, and was sitting at the table watching the move- 

 ments of his uninvited bed-fellow. I soon poked him 

 out with a stick, and cut oft' his head with a hunting- 

 knife. This snake was of a very poisonous description, 

 and was evidently accustomed to lodge behind the pil- 

 low, upon which the unwary sleeper might have re- 

 ceived a fatal bite. Upon taking possession of an 

 unfrequented rest-house, the cushions of the sofas and 

 bedsteads should always be examined, as they are great 

 attractions to snakes, scorpions, centipedes and all man- 

 ner of reptiles. 



