210 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
being frequently from thirty to forty feet in length, 
and of a proportionate thickness. The rapacity of 
these creatures is often their own destruction ; for 
whenever they seize and swallow their prey, they 
seem like surfeited gluttons, unwieldy, stupid, help- 
less, and sleepy. They are then easily destroyed. 
11. But it is otherwise when this sleeping inter- 
val of digestion is over ; they then issue, with fam- 
ished appetites, from their retreats, and with accu- 
mulated terrors, while every animal of the forest 
flies from their presence. 
12. One of them has been known to kill and de- 
vour a buffalo. “ Having darted upon the affrighted 
beast, the serpent instantly began to wrap him round 
with its voluminous twistings ; and, at every twist, 
the bones of the buffalo were heard to crack as loud 
as the report of a gun. 
13. “ It was in vain that the animal struggled 
and bellowed ; its enormous enemy entwined it so 
closely, that at length all its bones were crushed to 
pieces, like those of a malefactor on the wheel, and 
the whole body was reduced to one uniform mass : 
the serpent then untwined its folds, in order to swal- 
low its prey at leisure. 
14. “ To prepare for this, and to enable it to slip 
down the throat more smoothly, it was seen to lick 
the whole body over, and thus to cover it with a 
mucilaginous substance. 
15. “ It then began to swallow it, and in the act 
of swallowing, the throat suffered so great a dilata- 
tion, that it took in at once a piece that was thrice 
its own thickness.” 
When is it easily destroyed 7 What anecdote is related of the 
Great Boa and buffalo 7 
