i86 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
ever, the experiment with one of the African species was more exciting. The 
reptile, measuring something more than fifteen feet, had been fasting for a 
considerable period and was, at the time in question, shedding its skin, and 
half blind in consequence, as snakes invariably are at the moulting season. 
The keeper went to its cage with a fowl in his hand, but when offering the 
prey the snake struck at its intended food, but missing this seized upon the 
keeper’s thumb. In another instant it had flung its dreadful coils about the 
man, and despite his struggles he would have speedily fallen a victim to the 
crushing power of the snake but for the arrival of timely assistance in the 
person of two other keepers, who had to break the serpent’s teeth before 
forcing it to quit its hold. 
The Carpet Snake is a member of the boa species, found in Australia with 
its congener, the diamond boa, the two being very similar. The former, how¬ 
ever, is variable in coloring, while in the latter the markings are of a diamond 
shape, from whence the names are derived. They seldom exceed a dozen feet 
in length, and are little feared by the natives. 
The Ringed Boa is a species somewhat common in Central America, but 
in former years it was extremely numerous owing to the reverence in which 
it was held by the Mexicans, who took every means for its protection. It is 
said that the Aztecs not only worshipped this snake but sacrificed human 
beings to propitiate its anger or to secure its supposed divine influence. 
This superstition no doubt grew out of the power which this truly enormous 
species possessed, and the insufficient weapons of the people to contend with 
it. Fear, therefore, prompted the Aztecs to propitiate it, in which effort priests 
were appointed to administer to its comforts, and in performing these duties 
some of the bolder succeeded in taming certain of the snakes, thereby gaining 
to themselves the reputation of possessing supernatural powers. 
The ringed boa frequently attains a length of fifteen feet, and to its 
naturally great power of compression it multiplies its strength by seizing 
such prey as comes within reach and winding its coils one over another about 
it. Other species coil spirally about their victims and even in this wise are 
able to crush the ribs of an ox; what, therefore, must be the muscular force 
of a gigantic snake that re-enforces its strength by throwing coil around coil 
to double and treble its muscular power ? To contend successfully with the 
ringed boa , it is only necessary to strike the creature a heavy blow on the 
tail, or better still, cut off a part of the extremity, when the reptile becomes 
almost powerless. Its colorings are not always the same, changing somewhat 
with the seasons, but are generally of a deep brown, or chocolate, with a 
series of circular spots of a yet darker color along the back and sides. 
The head is distinguished by having five dark streaks on the top and sides, 
extending down to the angle of the mouth. While all members of the boa 
family are provided with the rudiments of posterior legs, cropping out from 
beneath the skin in the form of tubercles, called spurs, the ringed boa has them 
more prominent, and in the male they are more conspicuous than in the female. 
The Dog-Headed Boa is somewhat larger than the species just described, 
and makes its haunts among other giant reptiles amid the Brazilian jungles. 
It is beautifully marked upon a background of brilliant green, and has a fanci¬ 
fully striped head, while to attractive coloring is added a shape which some 
persons think resembles that of a dog, though it is a stretch of the imagination. 
