xin BOIDAE PYTIIONINAE 599 



line extends over the head from the nose to the neck, and 

 another on each side from the eye to the angle of the mouth. 

 The under parts are mostly yellowish, with small brown spots on 

 the sides. 



This is one of the largest species of Python, some specimens 

 being known which measured about 30 feet in length. 



As a sample of folk-lore connected with this monstrous snake 

 the following Burmese fable has been recorded by Mason : 



" According to a Karen legend all the poisonous serpents derive 

 their virulence from the Python, which, though innocuous now. 

 was originally the only one that was venomous. In those days 



FIG. 157. Python spilotes (the Carpet Snake), x . 



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, an 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.' The Crow went to the neighbourhood of a 

 Karen cabin, and found the people, as is their custom at funerals, 

 laughing, singing, dancing, jumping, and beating drums. He 

 therefore returned to the Python, and told him that so far from 



1 Burma, its People and Productions, London, 1882. 



