198 



WANDERINGS IN 



Third tliese iiegrocs looked for a large snake, and as often been 



Journey, 



disappointed. 



One Sunday morning I met one of them in the forest, 

 and asked him which way he was going : he said he was 

 going towards Warratilla creek to hunt an Armadillo ; 

 and he had his little dog with him. On coming back, 

 about noon, the dog began to bark at the root of a large 

 tree, which had been upset by the whirlwind, and was 

 lying there in a gradual state of decay. The negro said, 

 he thought his dog was barking at an Acouri, which had 

 probably taken refuge under the tree, and he went up 

 with an intention to kill it ; he there saw a snake, and 

 hastened back to inform me of it. 



Goes in Xhc suu had iust passed the meridian in a cloudless 



search of a l 



snake. gj^y . there was scarcely a bird to be seen, for the winged 

 inhabitants of the forest, as though overcome by heat, 

 had retired to the thickest shade : all would have been 

 like midnight silence were it not that the shrill voice of 

 the Pi-pi-yo, every now and then, resounded from a 

 distant tree. I was sitting with a little Horace in my 

 hand, on what had once been the steps which formerly 

 led up to the now mouldering and dismantled building. 

 The negro and his little dog came down the hill in haste, 

 and I was soon informed that a snake had been dis- 

 covered ; but it was a young one, called the Bush-master, 

 a rare and poisonous snake. 



I instantly rose up, and laying hold of the eight-foot 



