The Poison-Fangs Of Snakes Are Artfully Contrived By Some Diabolical Freak Of Nature As Pointed Tubes, Through Which The Poison Is Injected Into The Base Of The Wound Inflicted.

The extreme point of the fang is solid, and is so finely sharpened that beneath a powerful microscope it is perfectly smooth, although the point of the finest needle is rough.

A short distance above the solid point of the fang the surface of the tube appears as though cut away, like the first cut of a quill in forming a pen: through this aperture the poison is injected.

Hardly had I secured the fangs, when a tremendous clap of thunder shook the earth and echoed from rock to rock among the high mountains, that rose abruptly on our left within a mile. Again the lightning flashed, and almost simultaneously, a deafening peal roared from the black cloud above us, just as I was kneeling over the archenemy to skin him. He looked so Satanic with his flat head, and minute cold grey eye, and scaly hide, with the lightning flashing and the thunder roaring around him; I felt like St. Dunstan with the devil, and skinned him. The natives and also my men were horrified, as they would not touch any portion of such a snake with their hands: even its skin was supposed by these people to be noxious. Down came the rain; I believe it could not have rained harder. Mrs. Baker in the palanquin was fortunately like a snail in her shell; but I had nothing for protection except an oxhide: throwing myself upon my angarep I drew it over me. The natives had already lighted prodigious fires, and all crowded around the blaze; but what would have been the Great Fire of London in that storm?

In half an hour the fire was out; such a deluge fell that the ravine that was dry when we first bivouacked, was now an impassable torrent. My oxhide had become tripe, and my angarep, being covered with a mat, was some inches deep in water. Throwing away the mat, the pond escaped through the sieve-like network, but left me drenched. Throughout the night it poured. We had been wet through every day during the journey from Latooka, but the nights had been fine; this was superlative misery to all. At length it ceased - morning dawned; we could not procure fire, as everything was saturated, and we started on our march through forest and high reeking grass. By this circuitous route from Latooka we avoided all difficult passes, as the ground on the west side of the chain of mountains ascended rapidly but regularly to Obbo. On arrival at my former hut I found a great change; the grass was at least ten feet high, and my little camp was concealed in the rank vegetation. Old Katchiba came to meet us, but brought nothing, as he said the Turks had eaten up the country. An extract from my journal, dated July 1, explains the misery of our position.

"This Obbo country is now a land of starvation. The natives refuse to supply provision for beads; nor will they barter anything unless in exchange for flesh. This is the curse that the Turks have brought upon the country by stealing cattle and throwing them away wholesale. We have literally nothing to eat except tullaboon, a small bitter grain used in lieu of corn by the natives: there is no game; if it existed, shooting would be impossible, as the grass is impenetrable. I hear that the Turks intend to make a razzia on the Shoggo country near Farajoke; thus they will stir up a wasp's nest for me wherever I go, and render it impossible for my small party to proceed alone, or even to remain in peace. I shall be truly thankful to quit this abominable land; in my experience I never saw such scoundrels as Africa produces - the natives of the Soudan being worse than all. It is impossible to make a servant of any of these people; the apathy, indolence, dishonesty combined with dirtiness, are beyond description; and their abhorrence of anything like order increases their natural dislike to Europeans. I have not one man even approaching to a servant; the animals are neglected, therefore they die. And were I to die they would rejoice, as they would immediately join Koorshid's people in cattle stealing and slave hunting; - charming followers in the time of danger! Such men destroy all pleasure, and render exploration a mere toil. No one can imagine the hardships and annoyances to which we are subject, with the additional disgust of being somewhat dependent upon the traders' band of robbers. For this miserable situation my vakeel is entirely responsible; had my original escort been faithful, I should have been entirely independent, and could with my transport animals have penetrated far south before the commencement of the rainy season. Altogether I am thoroughly sick of this expedition, but I shall plod onwards with dogged obstinacy; God only knows the end. I shall be grateful should the day ever arrive once more to see Old England."

Both my wife and I were excessively ill with bilious fever, and neither could assist the other. The old chief, Katchiba, hearing that we were dying, came to charm us with some magic spell. He found us lying helpless, and he immediately procured a small branch of a tree, and filling his mouth with water, he squirted it over the leaves and about the floor of the hut; he then waved the branch around my wife's head, also around mine, and completed the ceremony by sticking it in the thatch above the doorway; he told us we should now get better, and perfectly: satisfied, he took his leave. The hut was swarming with rats and white ants, the former racing over our bodies during the night, and burrowing through the floor, filling our only room with mounds like molehills.

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