284 BUSHMAN SPRINGES. [chap. ix. 



but a subdued chucking ; its bite is highly venomous, 

 and it is a tree snake. I heard an instance of ten 

 cows having been bitten one after the other ; they said 

 that sometimes people when on their way home at 

 night hear a chucking in the tree, and think that 

 their fowls have strayed, and as they are peering about 

 under the branches to see where they are, the snake 

 darts down upon them and bites them. It appears 

 to be a particularly vicious snake. I have generally 

 heard it called "hangara." I never heard of its 

 possessing wings. 



Since my return I have had my attention directed 

 to a recent book, Mr. Gosse's " Notes of a Naturalist 

 in Jamaica," in which he mentions the prevalence of 

 the same belief there, and relates several reported 

 facts relative to the creature. In the Penny Cyclo- 

 paedia, under the head cockatrice, many old drawings 

 of these snakes are reproduced, and are worth looking 

 at ; they differ much in character from one another, 

 and seem to have been derived from different originals. 

 I can give no clue to the fable of the cockatrice's 

 eggs. 



The Bushmen of 'Tounobis are far superior to the 

 Damaras in the art of catching animals ; their springe 

 is a very simple one. I admii-ed the simplicity of 

 the method by which the antelopes were induced to 

 leap into the middle of it ; an unpractised hand would 

 have made a fence as though he were laying out a 

 steeple-chase coiu"se, but the Bushmen simply bend 

 a twig across the pathway, which does not in the least 

 frighten the animal, but which, in the gaiety of his 



