THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 17 



explained. A python had climbed up one of the posts of the 

 house, and had made his way under the thatch within a yard of 

 my head, and taken up a comfortable position in the roof and 

 I had slept soundly all night directly under him. 



" I called to my two boys, who were skinning birds below, and 

 said, 'Here's a big snake in the roof;' but as soon as I had shown 

 it to them they rushed out of the house and begged me to come out 

 directly. Finding they were too much afraid to do anything, we 

 called some of the laborers in the plantation, and soon had half- 

 a-dozen men in consultation outside. One of these, a native of 

 Bouru, where there are a great many snakes, said he would get him 

 out, and proceeded to work in a business-like manner. He made 

 a strong noose of rattan, and with a long pole in the other hand 

 poked at the snake, which then began slowly to uncoil itself. 

 He then managed to slip the noose over its head, and getting it 

 well on to the body, dragged the animal down. There was a 

 great scuffle as the snake coiled round the chairs and posts to 

 resist his enemy, but at length the man caught hold of its tail, 

 rushed out of the house (running so quick that the creature 

 seemed quite confounded) and tried to strike its head against a 

 tree. He missed, however, and let go, and the snake got under 

 a dead trunk close by. It was again poked out, and again the 

 Bouru man caught hold of its tail, and running away quickly 

 dashed its head with a swing against a tree, and it was then easily 

 killed with a hatchet. It was about twelve feet long, and very 

 thick, capable of doing much mischief, and of swallowing a dog 

 or a child." 



MAKING CAKES OF THE SAGO PALM. 



A SINGULAR tree grows in the island of Ceram, called the sago 

 palm, the trunk of which provides most excellent food after pass- 

 ing through a process of beating and washing, which dissolves 

 the pith from the trunk. Water is then poured on the pith, 

 which is kneaded and pressed against a strainer till the starch is 

 dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is 

 thrown away. The water, charged with sago starch, passes on 

 to a trough, with a depression in the centre, where the sediment 

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