40 
MEMOIR OF 
would his master ; and after it was delivered to 
me, I kept it in a large earthen jar, such as are 
for keeping the best water for the commanders of 
ships during their voyages, covering its mouth 
with two boards, and laying weights upon them. 
I had it fed every day by the garbage of fowl, &c. 
put into the jar from the kitchen. Thus it lived 
for some time, when, being weary of its confine- 
ment, it shoved asunder the two boards on the 
mouth of the jar, and got up to the top of a large 
house, wherein lay footmen and other domestics 
of her grace the Duchess of Albemarle, who, 
being afraid to lie down in such company, shot 
my snake dead.* It seemed, before this disaster, 
to be very well pleased with its situation, being 
in a part of the house which was filled with rats, 
* There is a figure given of this snake in vol. ii. plate 
274 ; and the author, describing it in page 335, says, 
“ They feed on birds, rats, &c. which they swallow 
whole ; and therefore Nature has given them such a folded 
or rugous inward tunicle of the stomach, that it may 
extend and receive things of large dimensions. Many of 
them have been killed with thirteen or fourteen rats in 
their bellies. 
“ An Indian brought this figured here, and several 
others to me. He used to take them behind by their 
necks, so that they could not bite him ; then he would 
give them leave to twist themselves about bis arm as they 
pleased. He killed them by putting their tails under his 
foot, taking them behind their necks, and stretching their 
back-bones, and twisting and pinching hard their lungs 
and trachea arteria. 
