142 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
While we were at the same camp at Chimbunga’s 
village, a native woman left the kraal to visit 
another village some miles distant, carrying on her 
head a majamanda, or native basket, and on her 
back, tied securely to her, her little child. As she 
threaded her way along the path that wound 
through the forest, her child suddenly gave vent to 
a pained cry, but comforting the mite, and unaware 
of what had happened, the mother continued on her 
way, and only discovered on arriving at her destina¬ 
tion that her babe was dead. On the top of the 
infant’s head, the flesh of which was all swollen up, 
were the indentations made by a snake’s fangs. 
Several natives of Chimbunga’s village had been 
killed at this identical spot, doubtless by the same 
snake, and strangely enough, some weeks after the 
unhappy incident narrated above, when I was 
travelling along the same path on the way to a 
distant village, where an elephant had been plunder¬ 
ing the native shambas, my trackers pointed out to 
me a large snake coiled round a branch overhanging 
the path. I blew the reptile’s head off with a shot 
gun and down came the writhing body across the 
path. It proved to be a fine specimen (about nine 
feet in length) of the nakahungu, a dull greenish 
serpent with an exceptionally large head, a species 
which is usually found in rocky, hilly places and 
feeds on small game, such as rabbits, birds, etc. 
