408 MISCELLANKOUS 'ffONDEkS OF NATOB®' 
continued to grasp with his mouth, tliougli it 
iinnf»r<i«;4;nrv r>rpt'niilirin nnri- nf Wii**' 
unnecessary precaution, that part of the animal 
first seized. The poor goat, in the mean lini«t> tW 
its feeble and half-stifled cries for some minutes, 
soon became more and more faint, and at last it ' jiii' 
The snake, however, retained it for a consideia ,iiv 
in its grasp, after it was apparently motionless. 
began slowly and cautiously to unfold himselt 
lell dead from bis monstrous embrace, when he 
prejiare himself for the I'ea.st. Placing his 
of the head of the dead animal, he commenced ■',| if^ 
part of the gotd 5 
eating witli his saliva that 
taking its muzzle into his mouth, which laid, 
nluriU'C tin, tl-!A 'mT^r'nvTnrd rif n l-i^pratcd i 
always has, the appcarnnci; of a raw lacerati 
sucked it in, as lar as tlic horns would all‘’"^' 
protuberances opjiosod some little clilficulty 
licit S*’ 
. th-'.'’ Ilf 
from their e.'ilciit us Irom their jioinis ; havvcvct, |^,f|i:fv, 
that is to sny>,‘’^. y 
in a very short lime, disappeared ; tliat is to sa; > ' ,.i 
but tlieir progress w'a.s siiil to be traced- very d;s 
the outside, threatening every moment to ptut'ttdh^j. 
the skin, Tlhe victim had now descended 
shoulders; and it was an astonishing sight 
extraordinary action of thesiiake’s muscles when s 
' ‘1^ >! 
‘"‘5 
such an unnatural extent — an extent which niu.st 
destroyed all muscular power in, any animal 
like itself, endowed with very peculiar faculties 
and action at the same time. 'Wheii his hec'd 
had no other appearance than that of a n’O 
stufi’ed almost to bursting, still the workings of 
were evident ; and his power of suction, as it 
called, unabated; it was, in fact, the eflcct o< “ , Ji^^ fli: 
muscular power, assisted by two rows of stroj’^ ii^jj 
respiration. 
power, assisteu by_ -- 
teeth. With all this lie must be so formed as^ 
to suspend, for a time, his respiration, fut i^ a,- d'*y 
to conceive that the 
on while the mouth and ..v.,,. ■ — , , j,.- 
and expanded by the body of the goat, and Ui® 
u!d>?‘ 
process of breatlihig ooo’ u, 
id throat were so comP , „j,s 
,d Uie ■ 
selves (admitting die trad’iea to be ever so hard) - 
as they must Jiave been, by its jrassage dovvii'va'd 
“ I’lie whole operation of completely gorg‘“° ^ 
occupied about two liours and twenty mhiutei> : pd 
which time the tumefaction was confined 
