228 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



tended strictly to business, and hung on like 

 grim death. There was a momentary pause, 

 and then the daring little pig shook his enemy 

 vigorously as he would a rat. For a second or 

 two thirty-two feet of python coiled and 

 lashed about the cage in a furious manner, but 

 the pig hung on. 



"His triumph did not last long. The eon- 

 test was too unequal. Suddenly the thick coils 

 left the air and descending on the plucky lit- 

 tle pig, coiled round and round, crushing his 

 body and cracking his ribs as though they 

 were nutshells. But still the pig hung on- 

 hung on until the coils of the snake gradually 

 relaxed — and then, as they loosened weakly, 

 and fell off, the pig, game to the last, dropped 

 off the python's neck, dead. His enemy lay 

 quietly beside him— the conqueror and con- 

 quered together. 



"Had the razor-back only allowed himself 

 to give one little squeal when he was being 

 crushed, he would have been obliged to relax 

 his hold, and we might have saved the python, 

 but his pluekiness cost us a valuable reptila ' ' 



