THE GUASO NYERO 345 



to find that if I suddenly heard the sound I was apt to stand 

 alertly on guard, quite unconsciously and instinctively, 

 because it suggested the presence of a rattlesnake. During 

 the years I lived on a ranch in the West I was always hear- 

 ing and killing rattlesnakes, and although I knew well that 

 no African snake carries a rattle, my subconscious senses 

 always threw me to attention if there was a sound resembling 

 that made by a rattler. Tarlton, by the way, told me an 

 interesting anecdote of a white-tailed mongoose and a 

 snake. The mongoose was an inmate of the house where 

 he dwelt with his brother and was quite tame. One day 

 they brought in a rather small puff adder, less than two feet 

 long, put it on the floor, and showed it to the mongoose. 

 Instantly the latter sprang toward the snake, every hair in 

 its body and tail on end, and halted five feet away, while 

 the snake lay in curves like the thong of a whip, its head 

 turned toward the mongoose. Both were motionless for a 

 moment. Then suddenly the mongoose seemed to lose all 

 its excitement; its hair smoothed down; and it trotted qui- 

 etly up to the snake, seized it by the middle of the back- 

 it always devoured its food with savage voracity and set- 

 tled comfortably down to its meal. Like lightning the 

 snake's head whipped round. It drove its fangs deep into 

 the snout or lip of the mongoose, hung on for a moment, 

 and then repeated the blow. The mongoose paid not the 

 least attention, but went on munching the snake's body, 

 severed its backbone at once, and then ate it all up, head, 

 fangs, poison, and everything; and it never showed a sign 

 of having received any damage in the encounter. I had 

 always understood that the mongoose owed its safety to its 

 agility in avoiding the snake's stroke, and I can offer no 

 explanation of this particular incident. 



There were eland on the high downs not far from Meru, 

 apparently as much at home in the wet, cold climate as on 

 the hot plains. Their favorite gait is the trot. An elephant 

 moves at a walk or rather rack; a giraffe has a very pecul- 

 iar leisurely looking gallop, both hind legs coming forward 



