AN ADVENTURE WITH A BOA. 



SAMOO, my Jhora boatman, is the finest story- 

 teller I know. He is a man of few words, but 

 with appropriate gesture and imitation he paints 

 such a word-picture that you can fancy the scene 

 enacted before you. He is no traveller has never 

 been twenty miles from his native village yet he 

 has had strange experiences, and strangest of the 

 many is his adventure with a boa. 



I might have been inclined to doubt the accuracy 

 of his description of the great snake's method of 

 fight if it were not for the singular confirmation 

 it receives from Rudyard Kipling's work, " The 

 Jungle Book," in which an account is given of 

 the serpent Kaa's fight with the bander-logue 

 (monkeys). 



As I cannot give Samoo's gesture and imitation, I 

 must endeavour to paraphrase them. 



" It was in the rains, Huzoor (your worship), 

 three years ago, when the Koel was in flood. I 

 was fishing at the gagra (rapids). When the water 

 is muddy we can only fish with the rod and line, 

 and then we only get small cat-fish. These fish 

 take bait readily in flood time, and I was seated 

 behind a large rock fishing in a pool above the 



