98 BRITISH REPTILES 
I had caught it by the tail, and snatched it out of 
some trailing branches, jerking it past his legs. 
'Are ye goin' tu do fur me as well as yerself? 
There he goes, hooray ! the varmint's gone.' 
' Not quite ! ' I cry, as I crash through the brambles 
and pin the viper behind the head. ' I am all right. 
Come and have a look at it. It is a beauty.' 
* Hev ye got it by the head or the tail ? If ye hev 
got it by the tail, I shan't come.' 
' I have it by the neck, with the body coiled round 
my wrist.' 
' Wun't believe it ! ' he shouts, as he dashes through 
the underwood towards me. Then, with one look of 
horror, calling out ' I'm off out o' this,' he vanished. 
It was a splendid specimen, twenty-six inches in 
length, very thick in the body, rich bronze-red in 
colour, with black markings, and it had a bloom on 
it like the bloom on a plum. When I reached the 
road from the hollow, I found a group of the natives 
waiting for me, Waggle among them ; and there I 
gave them a practical lesson in natural history. Shift- 
ing the viper from the right hand to the left, with a 
grass stem I tickled the creature's nose ; this raised 
its temper. To say that the mouth opened would not 
be enough, for the upper and lower jaws fell wide 
apart the two poison fangs erected, and the poison 
