xiv SNAKES 143 



The natives all say that the nakahungu is the 

 largest poisonous snake in Africa with the excep- 

 tion of the dreaded songwe. 



Among all the tribes of Eastern and Central Africa 

 with whom I have come in contact, I have heard 

 amazing stories of a snake called the songwe which, 

 the natives most positively assert, has a red comb 

 like a cock's on its head and crows in the same 

 manner as that bird. They allege that the songwe 

 deliberately waits on frequented paths for human 

 beings and kills them, and some of my men stoutly 

 affirm that they have been pursued by this reptile, 

 though I, myself, have never encountered it, in spite 

 of the fact that I have been in all kinds of country 

 where snakes abound. I have even offered a reward 

 to any native bringing me this redoubtable serpent, 

 either dead or alive, but this reward has never been 

 claimed. I am, therefore, inclined to think, though 

 I will not positively state, that the songwe lives only 

 in their imaginations, and Simba, my tracker, who is 

 a man of very sceptical and rational mind, says he 

 believes it to be a fabulous snake, or probably the 

 above-mentioned nakahungu, enlarged upon by those 

 who have been scared by it. 



When encamped near the Lumasuli River, some 

 time ago, the path leading from my camp to the 

 actual hunting-ground passed through a village some 

 five miles distant, and on the path between my camp 



