XIV 
SNAKES 
M3 
The natives all say that the nakahungu is the 
largest poisonous snake in Africa with the excep¬ 
tion of the dreaded songwe. 
Among all the tribes of Eastern and Central Africa 
with whom I have come in contact, I have heard 
amazing stories of a snake called the songwe which, 
the natives most positively assert, has a red comb 
like a cocks on its head and crows in the same 
manner as that bird. They allege that the songwe 
deliberately waits on frequented paths for human 
beings and kills them, and some of my men stoutly 
affirm that they have been pursued by this reptile, 
though I, myself, have never encountered it, in spite 
of the fact that I have been in all kinds of country 
where snakes abound. I have even offered a reward 
to any native bringing me this redoubtable serpent, 
either dead or alive, but this reward has never been 
claimed. I am, therefore, inclined to think, though 
I will not positively state, that the songwe lives only 
in their imaginations, and Simba, my tracker, who is 
a man of very sceptical and rational mind, says he 
believes it to be a fabulous snake, or probably the 
above-mentioned nakahungu, enlarged upon by those 
who have been scared by it. 
When encamped near the Lumasuli River, some 
time ago, the path leading from my camp to the 
actual hunting-ground passed through a village some 
five miles distant, and on the path between my camp 
