The
children, who also had their gourds before them, were obliged to
defend the contents valiantly; for at one moment a hen would peck
something out, and, at the next, a dog would run off with a bit, or
sometimes even a little pig would waggle up, and invariably give a
most contented grunt when it had not performed the journey for
nothing.
While I was making these observations, I suddenly heard a merry cry
outside the court-yard; I proceeded to the place from which it
issued, and saw two boys dragging towards me a large dark brown
serpent; certainly more than seven feet long, at the end of a bast-
rope. It was already dead, and, as far as I could learn from the
explanations of those about me, it was of so venomous a kind, that
if a person is bitten by it, he immediately swells up and dies.
I was rather startled at what I heard, and determined at least not
to set out through the wood just as evening was closing in, as I
might have to take up my quarters for the night under some tree; I
therefore deferred my visit to the savages until the next morning.
The good people imagined that I was afraid of the savages, and
earnestly assured me that they were a most harmless race, from whom
I had not the least to fear.
