466 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



'Uses. — In the arts, the skin of the python, in common with the 

 skins of other snakes and lizards, is made up in various ways, as 

 reticules, purses, letter cases, etc., but for trade pui'poses it is 

 but sparingly used owing to the difficulty in procuring skins in 

 any quantity. Nearly all large specimens are skinned by those 

 who kill them, the skins being retained as trophies which one 

 frequently sees adorning the walls of bungalows in this country. 

 Sometimes these are cut up, and I have more than once seen belts 

 made of them. 



All through the Eaf^^ certani natives regard the flesh of thia 

 snake very highly, and I can quite believe that it may be excel- 

 lent. The traveller D' Albertis when in New Guinea shot a closely 

 allied snake to the python (^Liosis albertisii) 19 foot long, which 

 he tasted when the natives with him had cooked it for their own 

 purposes. He said that it was " not so bad" though tough and 

 too sweet, but pronounces the soup made from it as excellent. 

 Only recently it was reported in the papers that at a fashionable 

 dinner in Paris, as a novelty, pj^hon steaks were served and 

 reported " very good." In Southern China I know it is eaten as 

 a great delicacy. In Burma the Karens and Burmese both regard 

 it as excellent fare, and no pj^thon met by them is likely to be 

 spared for this reason. In Travancore Colonel Dawson tells me 

 the hillmen eat the snake and its eggs too. In Land and 

 Water (August 10th, 1867) a correspondent says that a gipsy tribe 

 in the Dun eat pythons, and Mr. Mackinnon tells me that there 

 is a tribe called Myhras inhabiting the Dun that are ophiophagous. 

 Many Indian people are snake-eaters, and as such are not likely 

 to disdain the flesh of the python. Such are the Santhals, who 

 occupy a strip of country between the Ganges and the River 

 Baitarani, the Oraons or Dhangars, and Kols of Chota Nagpur, 

 the Garos of the Garo Hills, Assam, the Nats, a nomadic gipsy caste, 

 the Chentsus of the Nallamalley Hills, the Kanjars of the United 

 Provinces, and according to a Mr. Edwin, who wrote to a London 

 paper in 1768, the Ceylonese too, and doubtless there are many 

 others. 



These same races attribute all sorts of virtues to the internal 

 organs and fat. The specimen shot on its eggs near Colombo 



