“Well, that is as bad as can be.  What is the next?”

“The next is what they call the puff adder.  It is a very heavy, sluggish animal, and very thick in proportion to its length, and when attacked in front, it can not make any spring.  It has, however, another power, which, if you are not prepared for it, is perhaps equally dangerous —­that of throwing itself backward in a most surprising manner.  This is, however, only when trod upon or provoked; but its bite is very deadly.  Then two of the mountain adders are among the most dangerous snakes here.  The mountain adder is small, and, from its not being so easily seen and so easily avoided, is very dangerous, and its bite as fatal as the others.”

“I trust that is the end of your catalogue?”

“Not exactly; there is another, which I have specimens of, but whose faculties I have never seen put to the test, which is called the spirting snake.  It is about three feet long, and its bite, although poisonous, is not fatal.  But it has a faculty, from which its name is derived, of spirting its venom into the face of its assailant, and if the venom enters the eye, at which the animal darts it, immediate blindness ensues.  There are a great many other varieties, some of which we have obtained possession of during our journey.  Many of them are venomous, but not so fatal as the first three I have mentioned.

“Indeed, it is a great blessing that the Almighty has not made the varieties of snakes aggressive or fierce,—­which they are not.  Provided, as they are, with such dreadful powers, if they were so, they would indeed be formidable; but they only act in self-defense, or when provoked.  I may as well here observe, that the Hottentots, when they kill any of the dangerous snakes, invariably cut off the head and bury it; and this they do, that no one may by chance tread upon it, as they assert that the poison of the fangs is as potent as ever, not only for weeks but months afterward.”

“That certainly is a corroboration of the story that you told us of the rattlesnake’s fang in the boot.”

“It is so; but although there are so many venomous snakes in this country, it is remarkable how very few accidents or deaths occur from them.  I made an inquiry at the Moravian Mission, where these venomous snakes are very plentiful, how many people they had lost by their bites, and the missionaries told me, that out of 800 Hottentots belonging to the Mission, they had only lost two men by the bites of snakes during a space of seven years; and in other places where I made the same inquiry, the casualties were much less in proportion to the numbers.”

“Is the boa constrictor found in this part of Africa?”

“Not so far south as we now are, but it is a few degrees more to the northward.  I have never seen it, but I believe there is no doubt of its existence.”

“The South American Indians have a very subtle poison with which they kill their game.  Are you aware, Swinton, of its nature?  Is it like the Bushmen’s poison?”