to arrest the torment they are experieacing; nothing 

 stops their inliumaa zeal. When the skin of these 

 poor victims is healed, it resembles, it is said, a flowered 

 black satin, and renders them for ever afterwards the 

 object of the veneration of the Negroes, When the 

 time arrives for the god to receive the favoured Negress, 

 she is made to descend into a dark cave, whilst the 

 priestesses and the other young girls celebrate her 

 destiny by dances and hymns, which they accompany 

 with the music of many clamorous instruments. 

 When the young Negi'ess leaves the cavern she receives 

 the title of the serpent's wife. 



For a long time this Bock Snake was very rare in 

 European collections, because the natives in that part 

 of Africa in which it is found were prohibited, under 

 pain of death, from sending specimens out of the 

 country, or even giving any skins to strangers. They 

 were not allowed to be killed or even ityured in 

 the sliglitest degree. " The reverence and respect 

 which the Negroes preserve for this snake is bo 

 gi'eat," says Bosman, " that if a Black should dare 

 touch one of them with a stick, or any otherwise hurt 

 him, he is a dead man, and certainly condemn'd to 

 the flames. A long time past, when the English first 

 began to trade here, there liappen'd a very remark- 

 able and tragical event. An English captain being 

 landed, some of his men, and part of his cargo, they 

 found a snake in their house wliich they immediately 

 killed without the least scruple ; and not doubting they 

 had doue a good work, threw out the dead snake at 

 their door; where being found by the Negroes in the 

 morning, the English preventing the question who had 

 done the fact, ascrib'd tlie honour to themselves ; which 

 so incens'd tlie natives, that they furiously fell on the 

 English, kill'd them all, and burned the house and 

 goods." The habits of this serpent are very gentle, 

 because it has no enemies in that part of the country 

 to fear or to defend itself against. Out of their religious 

 respect for it, the natives try to remove all such animals 

 as might prove hurtful to it. Even such as might prove 

 beneflcial to the country otherwise, are excluded from 

 their shores should they threaten to injure their vene- 

 rated snake. The hog especially, which preys parti- 

 cularly upon several species of these reptiles, and which 

 is well known to attack with impunity the most veno- 

 mous of them, is pursued in the kingdom of Whidah 

 as a public enemy ; the Negroes seeing only in this 

 valuable animal an enemy which devours their god. 

 In consequence of this protecting care and kindness to 

 them, these large snakes appear to be quite familiar 

 wrtli man, and are said to be so tame as to readily allow 

 themselves to be taken up and handled and played 

 with, without the slightest danger being incurred. 

 They make a good return too for the kindness they 

 receive at the hands of the natives, for they attack and 

 destroy the venomous serpents with which the kingdom 

 of Whidah abounds, and seem to confine their antipathy 

 to injurious reptiles, and insects, and worms which 

 devastate their fields. 



THE NATAL EOCK SNAKE, another species of Python 

 (^Hortulia natalensis), is found is South Africa, where 

 it attains a large size. It was first described by Sir 

 Andrew Smith. The specimen figured by him in his 



" South African Zoology " measured only twelve feet 

 three inches ; but he says it occasionally attains a much 

 greater size, and the natives informed him that indivi- 

 duals have been seen whose circumference was equal 

 to that of the body of a stout man. He himself saw a 

 skin which measured twenty-five feet, though a portion 

 of the tail was deficient. Though not worshipped by 

 the natives of South Africa, there is a superstitious 

 regard for it, mixed up with the horror with which 

 they view it, that is something akin to the respect paid 

 to its relative by the Negroes of Western Africa. When 

 it has gorged itself with food, like the rest of its species, 

 it remains for some time in a nearly torpid state, and 

 may then easily be killed. But the Soutli Africans, 

 we are told, seldom avail themselves of these oppor- 

 tunities of ridding themselves of a reptile they view 

 with horror, as they believe it has a certain influence 

 on their destinies ; and they afiirm that no person has 

 ever been known to maltreat it, without sooner or later 

 paying for his audacity. Dr. Savage tells us also that 

 three or four individuals having made their appearance 

 upon a certain piece of land, the owner abandoned it 

 from the superstitious notion that it could not, in con- 

 sequence, yield a crop. The Natal Rock Snake has 

 the body of a fusiform shape, and the bead nearly of 

 the same thickness as the neck, is depressed and much 

 broader behind than before the eyes. The whole 

 surface has a strong metallic gloss in certain lights. 

 According to Sir A. Smith, this snake was formerly an 

 inhabitant of the districts now within the Cape Colony, 

 " anfl the traditions," he saj's, " of the older Hottentots 

 abound with instances of its miraculous powers. At 

 present it is not to be found within hundreds of miles 

 of the boundaries of the colony, and few specimens 

 have been obtained nearer than Port Natal." 



Boas {Boina). 



Linnseus described a large species of this family 

 [Boidm) by the name of Boa constrictor ; a name 

 whicli has now become familiar to all the world, and 

 here in Great Britam has even passed into an English 

 word. It has, indeed, given the name to the whole 

 family, so that by travellers and early writers all the 

 accounts of the huge serpents met with in various parts 

 of the world, whose immense size and incredible vora- 

 city have been so variously described and highly exag- 

 gerated, have been indiscriminately referred to that 

 species as the type of the family. The species, how- 

 ever, belonging to the Old -World, we have already 

 shown, form now a separate sub-family imder the 

 name of Pythons, whilst the true Boas, those which 

 are for the most part inliabitants of the New World, 

 and which contain the real Boa constrictor, form a 

 subfamily by themselves under the name of Boina. 

 About twenty species of these have been described, 

 two or three of which are very remarkable. 



THE BOIGTJACU (the true Boa constrictor) — Plate 5, 

 fig. 2 — is the one which is most widely known, by name 

 at least. This serpent is remarkable for the beauty and 

 variety of its colours, and is in general easily recognized. 

 It has a heavier look than any other species of the 

 family. The body is very thick in the middle, and a little 



