90 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



father, thoroughly aroused, felt again and found that a snake had 

 closed his jaws on the boy's head ; he then prized open the reptile's 

 mouth and released the head of his son, but the beast drew the whole 

 of his body into the house and encircled the body of the father ; 

 he was rescued by the neighbours who were attracted by the cries 

 for help of the terrified couple. The snake when killed was found 

 to be about 15 feet long. The head and forehead of the boy are 

 encircled with punctured wounds produced by the python's 

 teeth." 



A third instance of a Python attacking a man appeared 

 at the time to be authentic, but since my return to 

 England I have had reasons to doubt it. The story is 

 this : Two Malays who had been trading amongst the 

 Dayaks of the Samarahan River reported to head- 

 quarters in Kuching that, one evening whilst camping 

 on the river-bank, a companion went down to the 

 river to bathe ; shortly afterwards they heard his shrieks 

 for assistance, and running to the rescue, found him in 

 the coils of a huge Python ; they attacked the Python 

 with their chopping knives and eventually succeeded 

 in freeing their friend, but the snake escaped and its 

 victim, all his ribs and one arm being broken, shortly 

 expired ; in a tropical climate a corpse cannot be kept 

 for long, so they buried him. Their story was accepted 

 in good faith by the authorities. The late Colonel 

 Bingham, a well-known naturalist who had had a wide 

 experience as a forest officer in Burma, to whom I 

 retailed this story, told me that two similar reports 

 were made to district magistrates in Burma to account 

 for the disappearance of two natives. In each case the 

 magistrates, suspecting foul play, caused the bodies to 

 be exhumed, and it was found that the unfortunate 

 men had been murdered ; their bodies had been 

 entwined with coils of rattan which were hauled 



