72 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



into the bush as fast as his ribs and scales would propel him, 

 evidently as much terrified as I was. When I was able to collect 

 my thoughts I looked around for my gun and hat, and wandered 

 off, calculating whether the Python could have managed to 

 swallow me whole or not. 



The Python and the Cock. 



Sitting on the stoep of a Dutch farmhouse listening to the 

 tales of a tough old Boer hunter, a rooster suddenly began to 

 cry out in evident distress, down amongst the foliage in the garden- 

 We made off in the direction of the sound, and there in a shady 

 glade was a tremendous Python doing his mightiest to constrict 

 the fowl. The rooster's head was sticking out in one direction, 

 his tail in another, and his legs and wings were north, south, east 

 and west. The Python had him enveloped in his great coils, 

 but the fowl's body was comparatively so small, and the Python 

 so large, that he somehow could not get a sufficient grip to squash 

 the rooster. In the meantime the cock was crying out for aid, 

 assisted by his wives, who kept at a safe distance and cackled. 



We darted back to the house, procured a mealie sack, and from 

 three points of the compass sneaked the Python like a stealthy 

 Red Indian. A signal was given, and we simultaneously rushed in 

 and assaulted him. In his bewilderment he raised his head to 

 take in the situation. Before he could decide how to act, the 

 Dutchman clapped the mouth of the sack over the Python's 

 head ; his son and I threw ourselves on the huge body, and after 

 about fifteen minutes' tumbling and rolling around, we managed 

 to get him safely lodged inside the sack, which he almost filled. 

 We kept this Python alive in a cage in the grounds of the Natal 

 Museum for a lone time. 



Buck-Hunting Incident. 



At the big buck hunts in Natal, it is the practice to gather 

 together from fifty to a hundred kraal natives, with their dogs. 

 These natives would spread themselves out crescent-fashion and 

 enter the dense bush, and the fellows with the guns would go away 



