282 THE " SONGO " 



something akin to our conception of the cocka- 

 trice, and is said to possess a red comb upon its 

 head, and to have the unusual power of pro- 

 ducing, at will a curious melancholy, metallic 

 cry. A description given to me many years ago 

 by the Rev. D. C. Ruffelle-Scott of the Church 

 of Scotland Mission, than whom no more 

 scrupulously accurate person ever entered 

 Nyasaland, of an experience in the course of 

 which he caught sight of one of these creatures, 

 was that of a snake of bright green colour, not 

 more than 7 or 8 feet long, but of great and 

 almost disproportionate girth, which moved 

 through the branches with wonderful speed, and 

 successfully stampeded every carrier who 

 accompanied him. My informant was unable 

 to vouch for the comb upon the reptile's head, 

 not did he hear its not unmusical cry, but he was 

 fully convinced during the remainder of his life 

 that this was the semi-legendary tree snake so 

 firmly believed in by the Nyasaland natives 

 from the north of Lake Nyasa to the most 

 southerly boundary of that fascinating colony. 



In his book, Nyasaland under the Foreign 

 Office, Mr. H. L. Duff mentions having heard the 

 cry of some creature which his terrified servants 

 assured him was that of the " Songo," a serpent 

 " with a head like a cock," and he adds that all 

 the natives in the district of Livingstonia pro- 

 fessed the greatest dread of the creature ; whilst, 

 if further prima facie evidence be wanting, he 

 tells us that a Mr. Murray of the Livingstonia 

 Mission informed him that a native stated to 



