I Instantly Fired At Him, Cutting Him
Clean In Half With The Shot; The Tail Part Remained
Where It Was,
But the head half quickly wriggled
off and disappeared in the gloom of the tent.
The trail of blood, however,
Enabled us to track
it, and we eventually found the snake, still full of
fight, under the edge of the ground-sheet. He
made a last vicious dart at one of the men who
had run up, but was quickly given the happy
despatch by a blow on the head. Rawson now
picked it up and brought it to the light. He
then put his foot on the back of its head and
with a stick forced open the jaws, when suddenly
we saw two perfectly clear jets of poison spurt
out from the fangs. An Indian baboo (clerk), who
happened to be standing near, got the full benefit
of this, and the poor man was so panic-stricken
that in a second he had torn off every atom of his
clothing. We were very much amused at this,
as of course we knew that although the poison was
exceedingly venomous, it could do no harm unless
it penetrated a cut or open wound in the flesh.
I never found out the name of this snake, which,
as I have said, was of a dark brick-red colour
all over; and I only saw one other of the same
kind all the time I was in East Africa. I came
upon it suddenly one day when out shooting.
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