ANECDOTE OF A PYTHON. 323 



the rest, begged the life of the fowl. Ihad no sooner, 

 however, introduced my arm with that benevolent inten- 

 tion, than throwing back its head, and unwinding its 

 body from its prey, " the spirited, sly snake," as Milton 

 would have termed it, darted at my hand with the 

 greatest velocity, and held me fast with its teeth, by the 

 ball of the thumb, nor was it without some trouble, that 

 I was able to extricate myself, owing to the fact that the 

 long, sharp, curved teeth of a serpent, all point backwards. 

 Some time after this event, the death-warrant of the 

 poor reptile was sealed, and I appointed myself his exe- 

 cutioner. The question was how to persuade a snake so 

 large and active, to enter a stone jar, filled with spirits of 

 wine, without making a vigorous resistance. However, 

 quickly seizing it by the neck, I drew the reptile from 

 its cage, and had his body held down by a party of volun- 

 teers. The muscular contractions, however, proved some- 

 what too powerful for their weight and strength, and the 

 caudal end escaping wound itself about my leg, which, 

 perhaps, would have got a squeeze, but for an accession 

 to our force, in the person of my friend Mr. Charles 

 Richards. " Vi et armis," the doomed serpent was now 

 consigned, without mercy, to a death somewhat similar 

 to that selected by a certain duke of Clarence. 



If the enormous Boa-Constrictors described by Pliny 

 as warring against the Elephants of India, with perpetual 

 discord, "tantae magnitudinis, ut circumplexu facile 

 ambiant nexuque nodi praestringant," were as lively in 

 their movements as our Python of Leuconia, they must 

 indeed have been " dragons " in every sense of the ex- 

 pression ! 



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