Chap. VII. SERPENTS. 143 



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. Occa- 

 sionally, however, notwithstanding every precaution, they do find 

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

 put into bodily fear themselves, or when trodden upon, or when 

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

 made bv 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 before, 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 colour, 8 feet 3 

 inches long. Tins 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 distil clear poison from 

 the fangs for hours after its head was cut off. Tins 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 favours 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 ciy by night exactly like the 

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

 conld possibly have been. It is supposed by the natives to lure 



