138 A PYTHON-HUNT. 



with a bullet through the head. It was one of the 

 " muggur " or broad-snouted kind {Crocodilus palustris), and 

 measured 7 or 8 feet long. 



Pythons of very large size were sometimes met with in 

 these jungles, and I have myself shot several, one of which 

 measured over 21 feet in lenf^th, and in girth about 2 feet. 

 For the benefit of such as are fond of the marvellous, I shall 

 venture to here recapitulate the strange circumstances at- 

 tending the slaying of this huge reptile, as contributed by 

 me years ago to the ' Oriental Sporting Magazine.' But 

 those who, from their inexperience of wild-jungle life, are 

 always inclined to be sceptical regarding " travellers' tales," 

 had better skip the rest of this chapter, for I warn them 

 that the unvarnished facts it contains will almost require 

 the powers of deglutition of the creature in question to 

 swallow. Nevertheless they occurred exactly as follows. 



I was out in camp in the eastern Doon with a party of 

 my regiment employed in cutting grass for barrack-thatching, 

 when one day I chanced to notice that one of the men at 

 work had adorned his head with a curious-looking turban. 

 A closer inspection showed it to be a portion of a huge 

 python's semi-transparent cast-off skin, which the lad, a 

 light-hearted Goorkha, had thus donned, much to the amuse- 

 ment of an admiring circle of his broad-faced companions, 

 who were regarding him with looks beaming with fun. On 

 questioning him as to where he got it, he told me he had 

 picked it up when out shooting in the neighbouring forest, 

 and that he had seen, close to the place where he had found 

 it, what must have been the snake that had shed it, as the 

 creature lay basking near the entrance to a big hole, into 

 which it had disappeared at his approach. As he said he 

 thought he could remember the spot, I proposed that he 

 should proceed there forthwith. 



For a long way my sturdy little guide trudged silently 

 ahead through the forest, until at length he appeared to be 

 drawing up to something, after the manner of a pointer on 



