THE SNAKES 275 



Island in the Lupata Gorge. From time to time 

 it immersed itself completely, but the greater 

 part of the distance over which I traced it the 

 head was held clear of the surface. On land 

 they are slow and, unlike the mambas, move 

 apparently at the expense of no little effort ; 

 but they delight in water, wherein they spend a 

 great portion of their time, and whence they 

 seize and capture no small proportion of their 

 prey. These creatures are not unhandsome in 

 appearance, and stand at the head of the seventy 

 per cent, or so of African snakes which possess 

 no venom. They kill their prey entirely by 

 constriction. It consists of small animals, birds, 

 and, at times it must be confessed, children. 

 I never heard of a full-grown man or woman 

 being taken by a python, but I have actually 

 conversed with the parents of a small child who 

 met his death near a village in the Barue from this 

 cause. They informed me that the poor little 

 creature, who used to play all day long at a reed- 

 bordered stream which flowed past their village, 

 was one day missed and the inhabitants turned 

 out to search for him. The quest continued for 

 nearly two days, when a large gorged python 

 was discovered concealed in a reed-patch. It 

 was killed without difficulty and the body of the 

 missing child, already a mass of decomposition, 

 was removed from it. Ordinarily, however, I 

 do not think it is usual for any animal larger 

 than a duiker or small reedbuck to be found in a 

 python. Once seized, the great snake rapidly 

 coils itself round the victim's body and proceeds 



