SERPENTS. 



131 



undermined with their burrows, that the foot sinks in at 

 every step. Little haycocks, about two feet high, and 

 rather more than that in breadth, are made by one variety 

 of these little creatures. The same thing is done in 

 regions annually covered with snow for obvious .purposes, 

 but it is difficult here to divine the reason of the hay- 

 making in the climate of Africa.* 



Wherever mice abound, serpents may be expected, for 

 the one preys on the other. A cat in a house is, therefore, 

 a good preventive against the entrance of these noxious 

 reptiles. Occasionally, however, notwithstanding every 

 precaution, they do find their way in, but even the most 

 venomous sorts bite only when put into bodily fear them- 

 selves, 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 ex- 

 perience 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. Barly 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. This species (picakholu) is 

 so copiously supplied with poison, that, when a number 

 of dogs attack it, the first bitten dies almost instan- 

 taneously, 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 



* Euryotis unisulcaius (F. Cuvier), Mtcs pumelio (Spar.), and Mus 

 lehocla (Smith), all possess this habit in a greater or less degree. The 

 first-named may be seen escaping danger with its young hanging to the 

 after-part of its body. 



