XI 
FROM EL BOGOI TO LAKE RUDOLPH 
255 
thing that looked like a toad caught my eye, beside my boot. 
Thinking I had inadvertently trodden on a harmless reptile, I 
was about to move my foot in compassion when I noticed a 
black, forked-looking tongue darting viciously close to my right 
foot, and, looking more carefully, saw that what I at first 
took for a toad was in reality the villainous triangular head of 
a large puff-adder, on whose neck I had set my foot, its body 
swollen out as big as my thigh. By so providential a chance 
had I held it fast in this way that it could not move its head 
to strike. Having my rook rifle by me, I put the muzzle to 
its head and sent a bullet through its brain. It measured 4 feet 
8 inches long. Such lucky coincidences suggest to one that, 
though we suffer many misfortunes, dangers are doubtless often 
escaped unconsciously. 
