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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XI. 



Now, the following happened to me with a snake. One 

 day, when out catching elephants, two of my comrades — 

 Vallentin Pollac,* a Pole by birth, and Henrich von 

 Kampen§ — and myself were ordered to cross the river and 

 fetch wood to increase the fire on account of the elephants. 

 One of the three had to hold his gun and keep guard so as to> 

 fire a shot should an elephant approach, whilst the other 

 two collected wood and put it into the boat. My comrade 

 Henrich von Kampen went a little too far into the forest 

 and began to shout at the top of his voice, that I — and 

 especially Vallentin Pollac with his gun — should come up 

 and load with a crossbar shot, because there was a large 

 snake that could not escape. After he had fired and killed 

 it, we noticed that it had swallowed a young deer, all save 

 one of the hind legs, which was still protruding. We 

 measured the snake, and found it to be sixteen feet long, 

 and as thick as a tree of twelve thumbs. We tried 

 m vain to drag it into our boat. When we cut it open 

 we found the young deer inside, and on placing it on 

 the cinnamon scales ascertained that it weighed forty 

 pounds. The natives wanted to eat it, but we thought 

 that if it would not hurt them it would not hurt us,, 

 as the snake was not a poisonous one.f We took it to the 

 river, washed it well, took the skin off, and divided the 

 flesh ; then cooked it and asked our comrades to eat with 

 us. Some of them thought it repulsive diet, but I felt no 

 qualms of that kind. I made four good meals of it, and 

 asked my good friend Michael Danckwert, of Sweden, to 

 join me. We thanked our Lord who had given it, and were 

 well content. The fat of the snake was melted away. We 

 took the carcass and put it upon an ant-hill, as we knew to 

 be the way of the heathens, who adorn themselves with the 

 bones that remain, which are made beautifully white and 

 shining ; they also use them for necklaces and hat laces. 



* Valentyn Polak ; JJeindrik van Kampen (Dutch ed.). 

 f He refers to the Python molurus (Linn.), which occasionally reaches 

 twenty feet in length. 



