202 
iPooß Kate Gets a Snake 13ite. 
collected, 1 watciied tliein a moment before taking the jump when Kate, 
impatient and smiling, passed the remark that 1 needn't stop still on 
account of that little flower and keep all the others beliind waiting. With 
a laugh 1 took a run and sprang onto the stone and Avas about to take the 
second jump when a heart-rending shriek from Kate pulled me up short, 
and Awacaipu*, the Indian immediately folloAving her, made a clean 
spring across the Avater Avith a terrible cry of "Akuy, Akuy! (Poison 
enake)." This happened to be the Aery moment of my turning round at 
Kate Avho, deadly pale, now stood close beside me on the boulder, point- 
ing to the bank from Avhich she had just jumped AA^th the samq cry of 
"Akuy." Just as I was enquiring Avith some feeling of consternation 
whether she had been bitten, she burst into tears, when at the game 
moment I noticed seAeral drops of blood on lier right leg close to the 
knee. Only a poisonous snake could have caused sucli a wound, and 
solely the speediest help could saA'e the poor girl's life. It was bad luck 
that Mr. Frj'er Avith my brother Avere last in tlie long line, while the 
Indian with the medicine chest and lancets was among the first. In the 
absence of any other bandage, I immediately pulled off my braces, bound 
them aboA'e the wound as tightly as I could, and instantly got the Indians 
to suck it. I believe tlie unfortunate Avoman Avas at first unaAvare that she 
had been struck at all, although the snake had sprung at her twice and 
had bitten her once above and a second time beneath the hand-broad 
strings of bead that was wound around her leg beloAV the knee. The 
running and racing drcAv upon us the attention of those that followed, 
among them her husband, avIio all rushed up. HoAVCA^er much the sight 
of his l)elo\^ed Avife affected him, he nevertheless had to hide his feelings 
in his inmost heart. Deathly pale, he got close down beside her and 
sucked the blood. While these efforts were being made, the boy with the 
medicine chest, my brother and Mr. Fryer came up : the latter scarified 
the bite, while the other Indians, squatting on their heels and outwardly 
apathetic, looked on and took it in turns to suck the wound. The sight 
of this circle of apparently indifferent faces with their bloody lips was 
something awful. Although we immediately applied spirits of ammonia 
both externally and intei'nally, our exertions were in A'ain, and in the 
course of three minuteg all the normal signs of poisoning had set in : — 
powerful convulsions seized the entire frame, the face became more and 
more pale and corpse-like, and the body A\'as soon covered with a cold 
perspiration, the poor patient complaining more of the terrible pains 
along the whole side of the lamed leg and in the neighbourhood of the 
heart and back, than in the wounded spot. The free movement of the 
foot became limited, spasmodic vomiting set in, Avhich quickly turned 
into blood, the eyes were also suffused with a hemorrhage that soon 
oozed out of the ears and nose : the pulse beat was quite 120 to 130. In 
another eight minutes our pet Avas no longer recognisable in her 
sufferings, the poor creature having already lost her speech with the 
commencement of the blood-vomit. During this interval the Indians 
* This man subsequently became the master-spirit in the tragedy at Ibirima-yen» when 
400 people, adults and children, rnutually sacrificed themselves with the idea of coming back 
to life as Europeans. The story is told by Appun. (Ed.) 
