SERPENTS. 161 



Wherever mice abound, serpents may be expected, for the one 

 preys on the other. A cat in a house is therefore a good pre- 

 ventive against the entrance of these noxious reptiles. Occasion- 

 ally, however, notwithstanding every precaution, they do find 

 their way in, but even the most venomous sorts bite only when 

 put in bodily fear themselves, or when trodden upon, or when the 

 sexes come together. I once found a coil of serpents' skins, made 

 by a number of them twisting together in the manner described 

 by the Druids of old. When in the country, one feels nothing of 

 that alarm and loathing which we may experience when sitting in 

 a comfortable English room reading about them ; yet they are 

 nasty things, and we seem to have an instinctive feeling against 

 them. In making the door for our Mabotsa house, I happened to 

 leave a small hole at the corner below. Early one morning a 

 man came to call for some article I had promised. I at once went 

 to the door, and, it being dark, trod on a serpent. The moment I 

 felt the cold scaly skin twine round a part of my leg, my latent 

 instinct was roused, and I jumped up higher than I ever did be- 

 fore or hope to do again, shaking the reptile off in the leap. I 

 probably trod on it near the head, and so prevented it biting me, 

 but did not stop to examine. 



Some of the serpents are particularly venomous. One was 

 killed at Kolobeng of a dark brown, nearly black color, 8 feet 3 

 inches long. This species (picakholu) is so copiously supplied 

 with poison that, when a number of dogs attack it, the first bitten 

 dies almost instantaneously, the second in about five minutes, the 

 third in an hour or so, while the fourth may live several hours. 

 In a cattle-pen it produces great mischief in the same way. The 

 one we killed at Kolobeng continued to distill clear poison from 

 the fangs for hours after its head was cut off. This was probably 

 that which passes by the name of the "spitting serpent," which 

 is believed to be able to eject its poison into the eyes when the 

 wind favors its forcible expiration. They all require water, and 

 come long distances to the Zouga, and other rivers and pools, in 

 search of it. We have another dangerous serpent, the puff adder, 

 and several vipers. One, named by the inhabitants "Noga-put- 

 sane," or serpent of a kid, utters a cry by night exactly like the 

 bleating of that animal. I heard one at a spot where no kid 



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