190 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
lie had accomplished his task, the boa measured double his ordinary diameter. 
He did not move from his posture for several days, and no irritation could 
rouse him from his torpor.” 
Woods also tells us that there are well-authenticated instances of men 
having been killed and devoured by monster boas, though he omits mention 
of particulars. While it is barely possible that such fatalities may have 
occurred, suspicion may well attach to such reports. It is a well-known fact 
that man has dominion over all creatures, and few there are, however ferocious, 
that will attack him except under provocation, and fewer still will eat man even 
after killing him. Snakes are even more timid than other creatures, the sight 
of a man being sufficient to impart dread in the largest. In addition to this 
I can call to mind no really. authentic account of the death of anyone from the 
attack of a boa, though my 
reading of exploration and life 
in the tropics has been most 
extensive. Still, I cannot 
positively deny what the Rev. 
Dr. Woods declares to be true. 
It is also a matter of very 
grave doubt whether a boa can 
swallow so large an animal as 
a buffalo, unless perchance it 
be a very small calf. The 
j aws of a boa and its power of 
extensibility, are not different 
from other snakes, and cer¬ 
tainly not greater in pro¬ 
portion to size. A snake five 
feet long may swallow a rat, 
but we can hardly believe 
that one this length would 
attempt to swallow a dog, or 
even a cat, yet such a snake 
could as easily swallow a dog 
of ordinary size as a boa six 
times the length could swallow 
an ox. Such capacity 
is most certainly imaginary. I must also regard in like manner the stories 
frequently told of the boa killing and devouring a tiger, though this 
would hardly be so difficult an undertaking as the bolting of a full grown 
buffalo. A tiger could wage desperate resistance, but the vitality of all snakes 
is very great, and if the attack of a boa be made upon an unsuspecting 
animal, as is usually the case, the victim would be within its powerful folds 
almost upon the instant, and serious defence rendered impossible. Yet, for all 
this, I none the less doubt whether a boa ever killed and swallowed a tiger. 
In strange contradiction to the above, though with that want of particu¬ 
lars and authority before spoken of which does very much towards discrediting 
the story, is the following which I take from Goldsmith's Animated Nature: 
“In the East Indies they grow also to an enormous size; particularly in the 
PYTHON, ECHIDNA, AND FENNEC ( Megdlotis ). 
