Chap. VII. 
SERPENTS. 
143 
Wherever mice abound, serpents may be expected, for the one 
preys on the other. A cat m a bouse is, therefore, a good pre¬ 
ventive against the entrance of these noxious reptiles. Occa¬ 
sionally, however, notwithstanding every precaution, they do find 
their way in, but even the most venomous sorts bite only when 
put into bodily fear themselves, or when trodden upon, or when 
the sexes come together. I once found a cod of serpents’ skins, 
made by a number of them twisting together in the manner 
described by the Druids of old. Wlien in the country, one feels 
notliing of that alarm and loatlnng wliich we may experience 
when sitting in a comfortable English room readuig about them; 
yet they are nasty things, and we seem to have an instinctive 
feeluig against them. In making the door for om: Mabotsa house, 
I happened to leave a small hole at the corner below. Early one 
morning a man came to caU for some article I had promised. I 
at once went to the door, and, it being dark, trod on a serpent. 
The moment I felt the cold scaly skin twine riband a part of my 
leg my latent mstinct was roused, and I jumped up higher than I 
ever did before, or hope to do again, shaking the reptile off* m the 
leap. I probably trod on it near the head, and so prevented it 
biting me, but did not stop to examine. 
Some of the serpents are particularly venomous. One was 
killed at Kolobeng of a dark brown, nearly black colour, 8 feet 3 
inches long. Tins species (picakholu) is so copiously supphed 
with poison, that, when a number of dogs attack it, the first bitten 
dies almost instantaneously, the second in about five minutes, the 
tliird in an hour or so, wlnle the forndh may live several hours. 
^In a cattle-pen it produces great mischief in the same way. The 
one we IdUed at Kolobeng continued to distil clear poison from 
the fangs for hours after its head was cut off. Tliis was probably 
that wliich passes by the name of the spitting serpent,” which is 
beheved to be able to eject its poison into the eyes when tlie 
wuid favours its forcible expiration. They all require water, and 
come long distances to the Zouga, and other rivers and pools, m 
‘search of it. We have another dangerous serpent—the puff adder 
—and several vipers. One; named by the inhabitants Noga-put- 
sane,” or serpent of a Idd, utters a cry by night exactly like the 
bleating of that animal. I heard one at a spot where no kid 
could possibly have been. It is supposed by the natives to lure 
