40 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
probably arises more from the terror than from the 
love it inspires. When lying in wait for prey, these 
snakes are remarkably wary, and no less active in 
seizing it when sufficiently near. They frequently 
suspend themselves by the tail from one of the upper 
branches of a large tree, dropping with the velocity of 
a thunderbolt upon sheep, goats, buffaloes, men, and 
even tigers, or indeed on any animal, save the ele- 
phant or rhinoceros, which may chance to come 
within their reach. They have been occasionally seen 
with the horns of a stag projecting from their jaws. 
As the body digests, the horns are said to rot and 
fall off, and thus the creature is released from its un- 
welcome incumbrance. 
When irritated, the boa hisses so loudly that it can 
be heard at a very considerable distance, and the 
sweep of its tail is so formidable, that young trees, 
and even the stiff stems of the knotted bamboo, fall 
beneath the stroke as if cut down by the shot of a 
cannon. In North America, it is said that the natives, 
when pursued by this formidable reptile, set fire to 
the long dry grass, and the flames immediately 
spreading check the further progress of the monster, 
which retires before the devouring element. The 
Indians will frequently attack and kill them, though 
this is at all times an enterprise of exceeding peril. 
“ Captain Stedman,” says Mr. Wood in his Zoo- 
graphy, during his residence in Surinam, assisted 
by his negro, was bold enough to shoot one of these 
gigantic snakes, which measured twenty-two feet 
seven inches, although the natives declared it to be a 
young one. The account which Captain Stedman 
