We Prospered, And Soon Had Several Fine Fellows On The Bank,
From Whence They Were Speedily Transferred To The Hot Ashes, And Roasted In
Their Integrity; They Were Thus Spared The Skinning, To Which, It Is
Averred, Custom Has Habituated Them.
Ferdinand and Cato were collecting
firewood for the night, for, in the position we had selected, we were not
Afraid of making a good blaze, and we were sitting and lounging round the
fire, conjecturing what had become of all the blacks, and how soon we
should fall in with the other party, when Lizzie - who had accompanied the
troopers - came rushing back, and said: -
"One fellow snake been bit 'em Cato; plenty that fellow go bong (dead)
by-and-by, mine believe."
We all jumped up, and sure enough, poor Cato came slowly towards us,
looking the ashy-grey colour to which fear turns the black, and followed by
Ferdinand, who dragged after him a large black snake, the author of the
mischief.
If Australia is exempt from wild beasts, the number of venomous reptiles
with which it is cursed make it as dangerous to the traveller as other
tropical countries in which ferocious animals abound. Hardly a tree or a
shrub can be found that does not contain or conceal some stinging
abomination. The whole of these are not, of course, deadly, but a
tarantula bite, or a centipede sting, will cripple a strong man for weeks,
while a feeble constitution stands a fair chance of succumbing.
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