CHAP. IX. nilLIPTON.— ANECDOTES OF SNAKES. 231 



it was the infant who slept in the same bed, but found it was 

 a large snake which had crept between her and the child. 

 It bit her thumb, but the bite did not prove poisonous. 

 They also confirmed the opinion that the bones of certain 

 snakes are poisonous, stating that, during the late war, a 

 Fingoe when on patrole trod on the bones of a serpent, and 

 was pierced in the foot. His foot swelled, then his leg, and 

 afterwards his whole body, and he died in two months. In 

 this case the wound might have been inflicted by a living 

 snake, but the general opinion is as above stated. 



In a country abounding, as Africa does, with serpents, I 

 expected to hear many anecdotes respecting them ; and 

 conversing on one occasion with Mr. Pullen, a farmer who 

 has lived many years in the country, and seemed to have 

 paid rather more than usual attention to this species of 

 reptile, he said he once saw a mouse running in a field, 

 and that, coming in sight of a snake, though at a con- 

 siderable distance, it instantly stopped. The snake fixed its 

 eye on the mouse, which then crept slowly towards the snake, 

 and, as it approached nearer, trembled and shrieked most 

 piteously, but still kept approaching until quite close, when it 

 seemed to become prostrate, and the snake then devoured it. 

 On another occasion he had watched a snake capture a mouse 

 in the same manner ; but, as it was retreating, he followed, 

 and struck it on the back with a stick, when it opened its 

 mouth, and the mouse escaping ran for some distance, then 

 fell down, but after a minute recovered and ran away. 

 Another time he said he watched a snake in the water which 

 had fixed its eye upon a frog sitting amongst the grass on 

 the bank. The frog, though greatly alarmed, seemed unable 

 to stir, until Mr. Pullen gradually pushed a rush growing 

 near so that it intervened between the eye of the snake and 

 its intended victim, when the frog, as if suddenly liberated, 

 darted away. Mr. Pull en's ideas were in accordance with 



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