MISCELLANEOUS. 223 



help of a heavy stick, with which he stunned the beast. 

 Down in those parts it was always said that the taming 

 of a hyena was impossible, and an encounter of this kind 

 had been frequently predicted. Tor the benefit of the 

 shikaries, who got a Government reward of five rupees 

 for each, we occasionally shot these cowardly and revolting 

 brutes, which are associated in my memory with a horrible 

 scene which will not bear description ; suffice it to say 

 that they are veritable ghouls. 



When in the Annamullays, a brother officer shot an 

 immense python, or anaconda I saw the skin, which he 

 stated was 23 feet long when first removed. He was 

 bison stalking at the time, and saw what he at first 

 thought was the trunk of a tree lying on the ground, 

 which presently began to move, whereupon the Carders 

 bolted. He soon discovered its head, and put a bullet 

 through it, which made the reptile so lively that he made 

 tracks too. Next day he returned and cautiously followed 

 up the broad trail which it had made as it had writhed 

 along through grass and bushes, finding it dead some few 

 hundred yards distant. 



The Carders tell wonderful stories about the size of 

 some of these snakes. I once got a young one about 

 twelve feet long and had it for two years, during which 

 time it grew about three feet. It was kept in a lar^v 

 box, and fed regularly on bandicoots,* of which it would 

 eat three at a meal, and would then probably touch 

 nothing for a fortnight. It was a cross-tempered pet, and 

 repeatedly bit me severely ; its power of constriction, too, 

 was very unpleasant On two occasions I stepped over 

 cobras without seeing them. One instance has been nhvudy 

 related, the other occurred in Burmah when out snipe 

 * Large rats, three times the size of an English one. 



