Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

which nature has marked its countenance: distinguished by the very uncommon appearance of two large and sharp pointed horns, situated, not as in the cerastes above the eyes, but on the top of the nose, or anterior part of the upper jaw. They stand nearly upright, but incline slightly backward, and a little outward on each side, and are of a substance not absolutely horny, but in some degree flexible. Their shape is somewhat triangular or three-sided. They are about half an inch in length, and at the fore part of the base of each stand an upright strong scale, of nearly the same shape with the horn itself, and thus giving the appearance of a much smaller pair ofhorns. The mouth is furnished with extremely large and long fangs or tubular teeth, situated as in other poisonous serpents, and capable of inflicting the most severe wounds: two of these fangs appear on each side of the mouth, of which the hinder pair are smaller than the others. The length of this animal is about thirty-five inches. Its colour is a yellowish olive brown, very thickly sprinkled all over with minute blackish specks. Along the whole length of the back is placed, at considerable distances, a series of yellowish brown spots or marks, each of which is imbedded in a patch of black; and on each side the body, from head to tail, runs an acutely flexuous or zigzag line or narrow band, of ochre colour. This band is bounded beneath by a much deeper or blacker shade than on the rest of the body. The belly is of a dull ochre colour, or cinercous yellow, freckled with spots and markings of blackish. Besides these there is a number of black spots of different sizes here and there dispersed over the whole snake. The tail is somewhat thin and short in proportion to the body. The scales of this snake are harsh and stiff, and are very strongly carinated. The head is covered with small scales, and is on its upper part mark

a very large longitudinal patch of brown, running out into pointed processes at the sides, and bounded by a space of dull lead colour or cinereous. The shape of the head is broad and flattc. ; the cheeks are varied with blackish and yellow. This snake is supposed to be a native of the interior parts of Africa, and was obtained from the master of a Guinea vessel by the Rev. Edward Jenkins of Charleston, South Carolina, by whom it was lately presented to the British museum.

THE ANACONDA OF THE EAST-INDIES.

An account of this dreadful serpent is taken from the letter of a gentleman who resided in the Indies many years where he saw it.

SIR,

I HAVE an account to give you here, which must startle you; but be assured, sir, I shall aggravate no circumstance, but merely

tell you what myself and more than a hundred others saw, for two whole days together.

Some years since, the commands of my directors carrying me to Ceylon, to transact an affair of no little consequence, I had an apartment prepared me on the skirts of the principal town facing the woods: at some distance from my window there stood some large palm-trees, that afforded me a delightful prospect.

One morning, as I was looking at these trees, I saw, as I thought, a large arm of one of them in strange commotions, bending and twisting about, though there was no wind, and often striking one end to the earth, and raising it again, and losing it among the leaves. I was gazing at this with great amazement, when a Ceyloneze coming in, I begged him to look and wonder with me: he looked, sir, and he was much more amazed and terrified than I; in short a paleness overspread his face, and he seemed almost sinking to the earth with terror.

He begged me to bar up all my doors; then told me, that what appeared an arm of a tree to me, was in reality a serpent of that monstrous size diverting itself there with its various commotions, and now and then darting down to the earth for its prey.

I soon found out the truth of what he told me; and looking more nearly, saw itseize a small animal before me, and take it up into the tree.

Inquiring after this miracle, the Ceyloneze told me that the wonder was only that the creature was so near us, for that it was a serpent but too well known on the island; but that it usually kept in the inland parts of the woods, where it often dropped down from the covert of a large tree, and devoured a traveller alive.

A relation so strange as this could never have gained credit with me, but that I actually saw the creature, from its size, capable of doing more than was related.

It continued diverting itself till we assembled a body of twelve of us, to go on horseback well armed to destroy him.

We rode near the place, but not to expose ourselves to danger we rode behind a thicket, from whence we might unseen level our fire-arms at him; but when we arrived there, we found him so much larger than we had conceived, that we wished ourselves at home again; and for a long time we dared not fire.

We had now time to observe the creature; and believe me, sir, all the descriptions of monsters of this kind hitherto given are trifles to what we saw in him. The Ceyloneze all declared he was much larger than any they had ever seen, and such a mixture of horror and beauty together, no eye but that which saw it can conceive.

The creature was more than as thick as a slender man's waist yet seemed far from fat, and very long in proportion to his thick

ness; often hanging himself by the tail from the highest boughs of the tree, and reaching the ground with his head. He was surprisingly nimble, and was now diverting himself in the heat of the day with a thousand gambols round the branches of the tree, and would sometimes come down and twist his tail round the bottom of the trunk, throwing himself to his whole length all around it. In the midst of one of these gambols, we were surprised to see him, all of a sudden, spring up into the tree; but the cause soon appeared, an animal of the fox kind, which the serpent had seen, coming towards him, he took this way to be prepared for him. He darted down upon the unwary creature, and sucked him in in a few minutes, then licked his chops with a broad double tongue of a blackish colour, and laid himself at his ease at length upon the ground; but with his tail still twisted round the tree.

In this posture I had an opportuuity with horror, yet with admiration, to behold him. He was covered with scales like a crocodile; his head was green, with a large black spot in the middle, and yellow streaks round the jaws; he had a yellow circle of a gold colour round his neck, and behind that another great spot of black. His sides were of an olive colour, and his back more beautiful than can be described his head was very flat, but extremely broad, and his eyes monstrously large and very bright and terrible. When he moved about in the sun he was, if possible, a'thousand times more beautiful than before, the colour according to the several shades of light presenting a vast variety of colours, in many places looking like our changeable colours in silk.

We all aimed our pieces at him as he lay, and fired at his head all at once; but whether he accidentally moved just at that time, or our fears made us take bad aim, we either missed him or never hurt him, for he took no notice of it: and after a council of war, we all agreed to make no farther attempt upon him at that time, but to go home, and return with a stronger party the next day.

The Ceyloneze seemed to know the creature well; they called it Anaconda, and talked of eating its flesh when they caught it, as they had no small hopes of this; for, they say, when one of these creatures chooses a tree for its dwelling, he seldom quits it for a long time.

I detained my company to dine with me, and the afternoon was spent in relating the amazing things which one or other of the company had seen of this sort of monster; in short, they told abundance of things that far outwent my credulity: but what we saw the next day, as much exceeded all they had told me, as what they told seemed to exceed truth and probability.

It seems the custom of this creature to lay wait for its prey is, by hiding in the boughs of large trees, from whence it unexpect

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »