THIRD JOURNEY. 177 



considered this the best mode of keeping live wild 

 animals when I was pressed for daylight ; for the bag 

 yielding in every direction to their efforts, they would 

 have nothing solid or fixed to work on, and thus would 

 be prevented from making a hole through it. I say 

 fixed, for after the mouth of the bag was closed, the 

 bag itself was not fastened or tied to anything, but 

 moved about wherever the animal inside caused it to 

 roll. After securing afresh the mouth of the coulaca- 

 nara, so that he could not open it, he was forced into 

 this bag, and left to his fate till morning. 



I cannot say he allowed me to have a quiet night. 

 My hammock was in the loft just above him, and the 

 floor betwixt us half gone to decay, so that in parts of 

 it no boards intervened betwixt his lodging-room and 

 mine. He was very restless and fretful ; and had 

 Medusa been my wife, there could not have been more 

 continued and disagreeable hissing in the bed-chamber 

 that night. At day-break, I sent to borrow ten of the 

 negroes who were cutting wood at a distance ; I could 

 have done with half that number, but judged it most 

 prudent to have a good force, in case he should try to 

 escape from the house when we opened the bag. How- 

 ever, nothing serious occurred. 



We untied the mouth of the bag, kept 



Kills and 



dissects the hi m down by main force, and then I cut his 



Snake. 



throat. He bled like an ox. By six o'clock 

 the same evening, he was completely dissected. On 

 examining his teeth, I observed that they were all bent 

 like tenter-hooks, pointing down his throat, and not so 

 large or strong as I expected to have found them ; but 

 they are exactly suited to what they are intended by 

 nature to perform. The snake does not masticate his 



I 



