NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



circumvented him, and, anon, had him safely lodged 

 in a large linen bag which I always carried hanging 

 from my saddle when on these expeditions. 



On another occasion we observed a Python 

 basking in the sun, but observing us it instantly 

 vanished. On approaching we noticed that it had 

 gone down an Aard Vark's hole. Piling up a quantity 

 of stones at the entrance, we made the reptile a 

 prisoner, and wended our way to the farmstead 

 adjacent. Returning with a number of native 

 labourers we eventually succeeded in digging the 

 snake out. We came across it in a chamber at the 

 end of the burrow, and on seeing that it was 

 cornered it made a fierce lunge, and succeeded in 

 gripping the bare arm of one of the natives. We 

 tried hard to disengage its strong, recurved teeth, 

 which were embedded deep in the man's flesh, but 

 failed, so I reluctantly consented to allow the 

 snake's head to be cut off. The jaws then relaxed. 

 These snakes, however, are not venomous. Inside 

 the body was a young Aard Vark, and in the 

 hole we found forty-four eggs which the Python 

 had laid. It had evidently gone into the hole to 

 lay its eggs, and finding it already occupied, forth- 

 with swallowed its inmate. Doubtless the mother 

 returning home, and finding a sixteen-foot Python 

 in possession, fled in wild alarm. 



It is stated in Harmsworth's Natural History that 

 the skull of a South American Ant-Eater may be 

 battered with a heavy stone without producing 

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