ADVENTURE WITH A BOA. 67 



We threw stones at the log, but there was no snake 

 there. On landing we found the bodies of the pig 

 and eight dogs. The snake had crept away into 

 the forest. We saw his tracks marked with blood, 

 but were afraid to follow. The Sonthals from 

 Godamarree ate the pig ; the dogs we threw into 

 the river." 



Such is Samoo's tale, told in fewer words but far 

 less graphically. How much truth there is in it 

 I cannot say, but the villagers all believe it to be 

 true. One can well conceive the enormous force 

 of a blow delivered with the tremendous power 

 of the mass of muscle making up the body of 

 these great serpents. But the question remains, 

 " Do boas strike such blows with the head ? JI 

 Mr. Kipling asserts it in his " Jungle Book/' and 

 now Samoo tells the same tale. The generally- 

 accepted belief is that pythons always use their 

 power of constriction to crush and kill their prey. 

 I have myself seen a nine-foot rock snake thus kill 

 a large-sized goat, but Samoo and other natives 

 assert that boas merely use their constrictive 

 power to break the bones and squeeze the body 

 of their prey into a shape fit to swallow, but that 

 they first kill it with a blow of the head. 



5* 



