CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
171 
of the tree, until at last, as if overcome by the potency of its 
fears, it jumps down from the tree directly into the throat of 
its frightful destroyer.” 
Quoting further from “The Encircling Serpent” by Howey, 
we find: “In South Africa in a serpent known as the booms, 
which has large eyes and a habit of partially coiling its body 
around the branch of a tree, and with its head erect and mouth 
open. If a flight of small birds discover the reptile, they fly 
around it, uttering wild cries till one, more terror-stricken 
than the rest, goes straight into the serpent’s jaws.” 
“Dr. Bird has given an interesting account of the fascina¬ 
tion of a human being by a serpent. Two lads out for a walk 
came upon a large black snake, and one of them wished to see 
if the reptile could fascinate him. He approached within a 
few yards of the snake which raised its head, when ‘something 
seemed to flash from its eyes like the rays of the light thrown 
off by a mirror exposed to the sunlight’. The boy afterwards 
told how, in a moment, all his thoughts were confused, and he 
fancied himself in a whirlpool, every turn of which drew him 
nearer to the center. All the time he was approaching the 
snake, but his companion, realizing the danger, rushed forward 
and killed the snake. 
“Mr. J. Herbert Slater, in a recent work described how a 
traveler, Mr. Lange, when exploring the regions of the upper 
Amazon, was told of immense serpents with a power of fas¬ 
cination which drew their victims into their grasp. Mr. Lange 
was extremely skeptical of these tales until the case of a rubber 
worker named Jose Pereira was brought to his notice. He in¬ 
vestigated this and found that the facts were as follows: 
Pereira was in his canoe, paddling downstream, when he heard 
a sound that he thought was made by some animal; and run¬ 
ning his boat aground he got his rifle ready to shoot, but seeing 
nothing continued downstream. Still the noise was audible, 
but he could see nothing to account for it. Presently, feeling 
uneasy and afraid, he returned and sat down upon the root of 
a tree, but soon found himself quite unable to stir. Luckily 
three workers from headquarters just then came down the 
river and, hearing the sound as of someone in distress, they 
