VORACITY OF THE BOA. 
39 
so intensely brilliant that no animal can meet their 
gaze without terror. The skull rises considerably just 
above their sockets, where it becomes broad and flat, 
but is slightly rounded at the extremity, where it slopes 
off into the neck. The jaws, though armed with 
sharp strong teeth, are not furnished with the large 
dog-fangs. As the food of these creatures never un- 
dergoes the process of mastication, everything being 
swallowed by them entire, they require neither inci- 
sor nor molar teeth, being merely provided with the 
means of securing their prey after they have seized it. 
When one of these snakes has taken a buffalo, or other 
large animal, the mode of destroying its victim is by 
crushing it within the voluminous coil of its tail, which 
it twists round the body of its writhing prey, and by 
the vast strength of its muscles breaks every bone, 
finally reducing the whole substance to a long shapeless 
mass, which it covers with a saliva abundantly secreted 
about the fauces, and then, by an effort of gradual 
deglutition, finally deposits it within its capacious 
stomach. 
When gorged the boa lays in a state of torpor until 
by natural depletion its wonted activity is restored ; 
it then repeats the monstrous meal, and under the 
influence of the satiety which invariably follows its 
gluttony, it may be easily destroyed, being utterly 
incapable of resistance of any kind. 
In some parts of India the skins of those creatures 
are used for ornamental cloths on account of their 
uncommon beauty ; and as these are extremely rare, 
they are valued in proportion. Like the alligator, 
the boa is an object of great veneration; but this 
