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Wild Life in Central Africa. 



SNAKES. 



Python 



Red combed snake (?) ... 

 Mamba ... ... 



Green long snake... 



Water snake 



Puff adder 



Small snake like porcupine 

 quill 



Mapingo. 

 Kapapasha. 

 Chipiri. 

 Nalongo. 



Harmless. 

 Dangerous. 

 Dangerous. 

 Harmless. 



The ordinary word for a snake is njoka, and natives do 

 not differentiate unless asked to do so. 



I do not know the Chinyanja names for many of the 

 above snakes, and I have got several Chingoni names from 

 an old chief named Shauri, which I could not identify with 

 many I know, as his description was too vague. I have 

 written against each whether it is dangerous, and he seems 

 to think that most of them are, and even states that the 

 python will kill men, and in doing so thrusts its tail in 

 the victim's nose \ The mbevu, mamba, piri, and mbobo, 

 he considers very "bad" snakes, and the latter he affirms 

 kills by hanging from a tree and biting at anything that 

 passes beneath, with fatal results to the passer-by. Few 

 natives can distinguish between poisonous and non- 

 poisonous snakes, although they naturally know which are 

 the most dangerous. 



