THE GUEBRE TRIEST. 
233 
sounded like the cry of one in the immediate agony of 
strangulation. In an instant, the instinct of filial ten- 
derness suggested to her the extent of her parent’s 
danger. She rushed to the side of the prostrate man, 
and at once the mystery was resolved. A large snake 
was coiled round him, with its head opposite to his 
face, and gradually tightening its folds in order to 
crush him to death. The daughter, roused to an un- 
wonted spirit of energy by her father’s peril, raised 
the knife, which she still held, and striking with all 
her force upon the monster’s body, severed the 
spine. The snake instantly uncoiled from its vic- 
tim, and writhed with agonized contortions about the 
apartment. It did not attempt to renew the attack ; and 
the Parsee, by this time having recovered his breath, 
seeing the condition of his enemy, took the knife 
from his daughter’s hand, and attacking the powerful 
reptile, quickly despatched it. It proved to be a young 
boa constrictor, about eighteen feet long — a fortunate 
circumstance for Jumsajee Merjee, for had it been a 
full-grown snake of that species it would certainly 
have destroyed him. 
As soon as he had killed the boa, as a precau- 
tion against any similar attack, — a circumstance by no 
means probable, as those creatures are almost invari- 
ably found single, — he kindled a fire in the principal 
apartment of the tomb, and lighting a torch, pro- 
ceeded to examine the different recesses, in order to 
clear them from any unwelcome occupants to which 
time and neglect had given an undisturbed possession. 
He found a number of large bats clinging to the 
walls, which dropped upon the ground when his torch 
