292 
SNAKES. 
down to Dilly to try to get some one to stay by 
me. Matross got intoxicated, and failed to 
bring the food stores I require. I sent every- 
thing I had on to H,, since they are very poorly 
supplied in the interior, and have only rice and 
eggs for present use. My fowls are of no benefit 
except for their eggs, as I cannot myself kill 
them; but I have traced them to their nests 
amongst the long grass, and have always a good 
supply of eggs. My hunt has to be rather a 
wary one, by reason of a discovery I have made 
that snakes frequent the vicinity. One wriggled 
through the spars of the kitchen wall lately, and 
when beaten to death it was found to have 
poison fangs. 
These past few days I have been much occu- 
pied, and have had no time to fret ; but I do 
confess to feeling somewhat desolate at the sun- 
set hour, which was always the pleasantest part of 
the day. I light the lamp early, and busy myself 
cooking my dinner ; for if I were to sit down to 
watch the fading glow, and turn round to still- 
ness and darkness and no food, instead of the 
spread table, and the lamplight, and the crackle 
and blaze of the kitchen-fire, I should surely get 
faint-hearted. 
I am not altogether forsaken. I have occa- 
