THE GUASO NYERO 
291 
they brought in a rather small puff adder, less than two feet 
long, put it on the floor, and showed it to the mongoose. 
Instantly the latter sprang toward the snake, every hair in 
its body and tail on end, and halted five feet away, while 
the snake lay in curves like the thong of a whip, its head 
turned toward the mongoose. Both were motionless for a 
moment. Then suddenly the mongoose seemed to lose all 
its excitement; its hair smoothed down; and it trotted qui¬ 
etly up to the snake, seized it by the middle of the back— 
it always devoured its food with savage voracity—and set¬ 
tled comfortably down to its meal. Like lightning the 
snake’s head whipped round. It drove its fangs deep into 
the snout or lip of the mongoose, hung on for a moment, 
and then repeated the blow. The mongoose paid not the 
least attention, but went on munching the snake’s body, 
severed its backbone at once, and then ate it all up, head, 
fangs, poison, and everything; and it never showed a sign 
of having received any damage in the encounter. I had 
always understood that the mongoose owed its safety to its 
agility in avoiding the snake’s stroke, and I can offer no 
explanation of this particular incident. 
There were eland on the high downs not far from Meru, 
apparently as much at home in the wet, cold climate as on 
the hot plains. Their favorite gait is the trot. An elephant 
moves at a walk or rather rack; a giraffe has a very pecul¬ 
iar leisurely looking gallop, both hind legs coming forward 
nearly at the same time, outside the forelegs; rhino and 
buffalo trot and run. Eland when alarmed bound with as¬ 
tonishing agility for such large beasts—a trait not shown by 
other large antelope, like oryx—and then gallop for a short 
distance; but the big bulls speedily begin to trot, and the 
