THE SNAKE AND JTS NATURAL FOES. 1577 



one occasion when out shooting he encountered and shot a python on 

 the mainland near that island. The Chinese who were with him 

 cooked and made a sumptuous feast off it. Its name in the locality 

 ;< Hoang Zo," meaning " Aromatic snake, " must, I think, refer to the 

 savoury smell its cooking flesh awakens in the Celestial's nostrils. 

 F. im Thurn* speaking of the boa constrictor says that the Chinese 

 alone of all the inhabitants eat and relish the flesh of these snakes. 

 David Livingstone! saya that the flesh of the python is much relished 

 by the Bakalahari and Bushmen in Africa, and that when killed and 

 cut up they carry away each his portion like " logs of wood over their 

 shoulders." James Chapman! speaks of once having killed a boa in 

 North Beohuanaland in which he found a hare, and remarks that the 

 Bushmen with him not only ate the hare, but the snake as well. C. J. 

 Anderson§ speaks of large snakes which inhabit the swamps about Lake 

 Ugami, and says they are often destroyed by the natives, who devour 

 them with relish. Colonel H. Yule!! under the word Anaconda, which 

 he makes it appear is really the Ceylon name for the python, says : " It 

 is added that the country people regard this great serpent as most 

 desirable food." 



Many other snakes enter into the dietary of various folk. EvanslI 

 tell us that the Karens eat the flesh of the hamadryad and pronounce 

 it good. Pbipson** again says he is informed that the Andamanese 

 eat the hamadryad. In Bangalore I interviewed a man of the Tigala 

 caste who told me his caste ate the Dhaman (Zamenis mucosus), but 

 this appears to be the only snake they partake of. The head and a 

 portion of the body anterior to the vent are removed, the snake skin- 

 ned and cleaned, and then cut into pieces and cooked, and he compared 

 the flesh to chicken in appearance and flavour. Eichardsff mentions 

 among other Indian castes the Santhals (who I find are supposed to be 

 the indigenes of Chota Nagpur) and the Dhangars of the same locality 

 as ophiophiles. The Kols, too (a tribe inhabiting the same part of 

 India), according to Mervyn Smith, J £ include snakes in their bill of fare. 



* A mong the Indians of Guiana, p. 134. 

 t " Journeys and Kesearches," p. 145. 



I " Chapman's Travels," p. "292. 

 § " Lake Ugami," p. 452. 



|| " Hobson Jobson," p. 16. 



II Bomb. Nat. Hist. Jourl., Vol. XIV., p. 417. 

 ** Bomb. Nat. Hist. Jourl., Vol. II., p. 245. 



tt " Landmarks of Snake Poison Literature," p. 66. 

 Xt " Sport and Adventure m the Indian Jungle," p. 140. 



