The Same Thing Is Done In Regions
Annually Covered With Snow For Obvious Purposes, But It Is Difficult Here
To Divine The Reason Of The Haymaking In The Climate Of Africa.*
-
* `Euryotis unisulcatus' (F. Cuvier), `Mus pumelio' (Spar.),
and `Mus lehocla' (Smith), all possess this habit
in a greater or less degree.
The first-named may be seen escaping danger
with its young hanging to the after-part of its body.
-
Wherever mice abound, serpents may be expected, for the one preys
on the other. A cat in a house is therefore a good preventive
against the entrance of these noxious reptiles. Occasionally, however,
notwithstanding every precaution, they do find their way in,
but even the most venomous sorts bite only when put in bodily fear themselves,
or when trodden upon, or when the sexes come together. I once found
a coil of serpents' skins, made by a number of them twisting together
in the manner described by the Druids of old. When in the country,
one feels nothing of that alarm and loathing which we may experience
when sitting in a comfortable English room reading about them;
yet they are nasty things, and we seem to have an instinctive feeling
against them. In making the door for our Mabotsa house, I happened to leave
a small hole at the corner below. Early one morning a man came to call
for some article I had promised. I at once went to the door,
and, it being dark, trod on a serpent. The moment I felt the cold scaly skin
twine round a part of my leg, my latent instinct was roused,
and I jumped up higher than I ever did before or hope to do again,
shaking the reptile off in the leap. I probably trod on it near the head,
and so prevented it biting me, but did not stop to examine.
Some of the serpents are particularly venomous. One was killed at Kolobeng
of a dark brown, nearly black color, 8 feet 3 inches long.
This species (picakholu) is so copiously supplied with poison that,
when a number of dogs attack it, the first bitten dies almost instantaneously,
the second in about five minutes, the third in an hour or so,
while the fourth may live several hours. In a cattle-pen
it produces great mischief in the same way. The one we killed at Kolobeng
continued to distill clear poison from the fangs for hours
after its head was cut off. This was probably that which passes
by the name of the "spitting serpent", which is believed
to be able to eject its poison into the eyes when the wind favors
its forcible expiration. They all require water, and come long distances
to the Zouga, and other rivers and pools, in search of it.
We have another dangerous serpent, the puff adder, and several vipers.
One, named by the inhabitants "Noga-put-sane", or serpent of a kid,
utters a cry by night exactly like the bleating of that animal.
I heard one at a spot where no kid could possibly have been.
It is supposed by the natives to lure travelers to itself by this bleating.
Several varieties, when alarmed, emit a peculiar odor,
by which the people become aware of their presence in a house.
We have also the cobra (`Naia haje', Smith) of several colors or varieties.
When annoyed, they raise their heads up about a foot from the ground,
and flatten the neck in a threatening manner, darting out the tongue
and retracting it with great velocity, while their fixed glassy eyes glare
as if in anger.
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