HUNTING IN THE INTERIOR OF SELANGORE. 331 



scarce as snakes in Ireland. In all my jungle wanderings in the 

 far east I did not encounter a snake four feet long, although I 

 looked for them very hopefully. It was disgusting after all the 

 big snake stories I had heard. The only snake I saw in Selangore 

 was a vicious little viperine affair, eight inches long, which I killed 

 with a prayer-book in Captain Douglas' drawing room at the Eesi- 

 dency, while kneeling at prayers one Sunday evening. He came 

 wriggling toward me across the matting, and I took him in. Just 

 before my visit jMi-. Syers killed three cobras in his house in the fort, 

 which had taken up quarters under the floor. Fortunately I am 

 not at all nervous, and this discovery did not disturb my slumbers 

 in the least. 



On the last day of my stay, an old Malay came into the fort 

 dragging the headless body of a python which measured twelve 

 feet six inches. He was walking through the jungle, and in pass- 

 ing by a hollow tree, the snake thi'ust its head out of a hole near 

 the bottom. He whipj)ed out his parong and very neatly decapi- 

 tated the reptile at a single blow. I bought the body and sent him 

 back for the head, which he presently produced, and at the last 

 moment we removed the skin and jDreseiwed it for mounting. The 

 jungle had relented and given me a snake after all. 



A few months later I saw in Singapore a fine living Ophiophagus 

 elap!^, about seven feet long, which Captain Douglas had sent down 

 to the Museum — the third specimen of that species he had secured. 



When the time came for me to leave Klang I was in no way 

 thankful to go. My visit had been so pleasant that I was really 

 sorry that I could not stay longer. My collection made a very sat- 

 isfactory showing for six weeks' work, and ]Mr. Syers' hearty hospi- 

 tality had made the place seem like a home. He himself was the 

 most interesting specimen I found in this territoiy, and as a char- 

 acter study he was "immense." In point of modest reminiscence 

 of "dangers he had passed, and moving accidents by flood and 

 field," he was another Othello, a fit type for the hero of a stalwart 

 romance. 



But my time came, and I had to leave his rambling, roomy, and 

 cool bungalow in the fort ; the Malay bugler who used to practise 

 the " Dead March in Saul" every morning ; the drills and parades ; 

 and the jolly friend who entertained me so patiently to the last. 

 At parting, he gave me a Malay kris, and a " pig-tail " which he cut 

 from the head of a Chinese murderer just before hanging him, as 

 souvenirs of the visit. 



