466 AMBOYNA. [chap. xx. 



crawling slowly over the thatch. The noise soon ceased, 

 and I thought no more about it and went to bed soon 

 afterwards. The next afternoon just before dinner, being 

 rather tired with my day's work, I was lying on the 

 couch with a book in my hand, when gazing upwards I 

 saw a large mass of something overhead which I had not 

 noticed before. Looking more carefully I could see yellow 

 and black marks, and thought it must be a tortoise-shell 

 put up there out of the way between the ridge-pole and 

 the roof. Continuing to gaze, it suddenly resolved itself 

 into a large snake, compactly coiled up in a kind of knot ; 

 and I could detect his head and his bright eyes in the 

 very centre of the folds. The noise of the evening before 

 was now explained. A python had climbed up one of the 

 posts of the house, and had made his way under the thatch 

 within a yard of my head, and taken up a comfortable 

 position in the roof — and I had slept soundly all night 

 directly under him. 



I called to my two boys who were skinning birds below 

 and said, " Here's a big snake in the roof ;" but as soon 

 as I had shown it to them they rushed out of the house 

 and begged me to come out directly. Finding they 

 were too much afraid to do anything, we called some of 

 the labourers in the plantation, and soon had half a 

 dozen men in consultation outside. One of these, a native 

 of Bouru, where there are a great many snakes, said he 



