Snake-Eater of the Afghans. 537 



dropped from her station to the top of the gate, and from 

 thence about twelve feet more to the ground. This was 

 done without the least apparent exertion or inconvenience, 

 and the animal walked away to feed without deigning to 

 cast a glance at her pursuers, who were soon obliged to 

 retrace their steps, and descend by the staircase. In leap- 

 ing the wall, which was at least twelve feet high, she did not 

 spring clear over it at a bound, but invariably aided herself 

 by springing slantingly against the side-wall of the house, 

 from whence, with a sudden and powerful stroke of the 

 hinder legs, she threw herself to the top, and then dropped 

 over.' I was obliged to raise the wall with a line of hurdles 

 on which she could not obtain footing, before I could keep 

 her within bounds. Her usual place for reposing was upon 

 the top of the gate-way, which she gained in the same 

 manner. Frequently when she had made her escape unper- 

 ceived, she has been found feasting in a granary up one 

 flight of stairs, and the moment she heard footsteps approach- 

 ing, she would spring through the window to the ground, and 

 with a desperate rush succeeded in gaining the summit of the 

 wall, and then quietly dropping into the enclosure, as if 

 nothing had happened, she walked away to feed. She was 

 perfectly tame, and would come and lick my hands in search 

 of pieces of bread, which I sometimes gave her. 



In November 1839, she admitted a domestic goat, and in 

 the middle of April following dropped a kid still-born, and 

 after lingering on for two or three days she died also. Her 

 confinement was premature, and she had received some in- 

 ternal injury from a furious blow administered by a wild ram 

 which was at liberty in the same enclosure. Her death was 

 a great disappointment to me, for I had wished to transport 

 her to England ; fate however seemed against me, for I not 

 only lost her, but the wild sheep and yEgagrus also. Of the 

 male, I have only been able to procure the dried skins and 

 skulls. 3 x 



