XI FROM EL BOGOI TO LAKE RUDOLPH 255 



thing that looked like a toad caught my eye, beside my boot. 

 Thinking I had inadvertently trodden on a harmless reptile, I 

 was about to move my foot in compassion when I noticed a 

 black, forked-looking tongue darting viciously close to my right 

 foot, and, looking more carefully, saw that what I at first 

 took for a toad was in reality the villainous triangular head of 

 a large puff-adder, on whose neck I had set my foot, its body 

 swollen out as big as my thigh. By so providential a chance 

 had I held it fast in this way that it could not move its head 

 to strike. Having my rook rifle by me, I put the muzzle to 

 its head and sent a bullet through its brain. It measured 4 feet 

 8 inches long. Such lucky coincidences suggest to one that, 

 though we suffer many misfortunes, dangers are doubtless often 

 escaped unconsciously. 



