SNAKES. 123 



the lithe and powerful body, which being drawn 

 tighter and tighter, soon reduces the victim to a 

 crushed and mangled corpse of the shape of a 

 sausage. By means of these constrictions the 

 necessary shape for convenient swallowing is 

 obtained. 



The Burmese have a quaint legend about the 

 Eeticulated Python (Python reticulatus) which 

 has been done into English by Mason in his book 

 on "Burma . . . and its Productions." "Ac- 

 cording to an old Karen legend," he says, " all 

 the poisonous serpents derive their virulence 

 from the Python, which, though innocuous now, 

 was originally the only one that was venomous. 

 In these days he was perfectly white, but having 

 seduced away a man's wife, Aunt Eu (Eve), he 

 made her, while she was in his den, weave figures 

 on his skin in the forms which are now seen. 

 At that time, if he bit the footstep of a man in 

 the road, such was the virulence of his poison 

 that the man died, how far soever that man 

 might have passed from the bitten track. The 

 Python had not, however, ocular demonstration 

 of the fact, so he said to the crow : ' Crow, go 

 and see whether people die or not when I bite 

 the foot-track/ So the crow went to the neigh- 

 bourhood of a Karen cabin, and found the people, 

 as is their custom at funerals, laughing, singing, 

 dancing, jumping, and beating drums. He there- 

 fore returned to the python, and told him that, 

 so far from his effort producing death, on the 

 contrary they produced joy. The python was 

 so angry when he heard this, that he ascended a 

 tree and spit up all his venom, but other creeping 



