62 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



in Natal with a friend, we came across a huge Python in a small 

 cave at the foot of a krantz. After killing it, we dragged its body 

 out into the light, and discovered that a pair of Duiker Buck 

 horns were sticking fully an inch and a lialf through its ribs and 

 skin. It had evidently swallowed the buck, horns and all, and 

 the latter worked their way through the skin. The Python would 

 probably not have died through the injury. These reptiles have 

 such powerful digestive juices that the whole body, bones and all, 

 of the buck, would gradually have been digested, and the horns 

 would eventually have dropped out. On a second occasion I was 

 present when a Python, Avith the horns of a Duiker ram sticking 

 out of its skin, was killed. In this case the skull had evidently 

 been dissolved by the snake's gastric juices, for the horns came 

 away very easily when pulled, leaving two small round holes in 

 the snake's side, which doubtless would have healed in a very 

 short time. 



One day when lying under the shade of a big forest tree near 

 Table Mountain, in Natal, I heard the terrified cries of an animal. 

 On emerging from the bush, I saw a Python with a Duiker Buck 

 in its deadly folds. Having no gun, I converted the branch of a 

 tree into a cudgel, and rushed up the incline at the snake. How- 

 ever, on seeing me approaching, it quickly disengaged its jaws, 

 unwound its coils, and made off amongst the bush-covered rocks, 

 leaving the buck in a dying state upon the ground. 



On another occasion my Fox Terriers gave tongue. Climbing 

 over rocks and stubbly bush in the direction of the sound, I saw a 

 Python of average size with head and neck distended enormously. 

 On seeing me it made desperate efforts to disgorge, but its jaws 

 were so dreadfully stretched that it was apparently powerless to 

 reverse its mechanism. I rapidly tied one end of a stout cord 

 round the snake's middle, and the other end to a tree, and ran 

 back to get a strong linen bag from a satchel, which hung from my 

 saddle. Returning, I found the Python had succeeded in dis- 

 gorging its prey, which was a half-grown Duiker. The reptile 

 was worked up into a great state of excitement by the badgering 

 of the terriers, and its inabihty to escape. Holding out the spread- 

 out bag, the Python lunged forward and seized it. The snake's 

 recurved teeth got entangled in the material, and without a 

 moment's delay I enveloped its head, and then seized it by the neck. 

 Wrapping the bag round its head, I tied it with a cord. I then 



