Wild life under the equator

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

With a light step I left our camp. My spirits were buoyant; discoveries of new animals, of new birds, of new countries loomed up in the distance. How much I would have to tell my friends on my return from that strange and wild land I had come to see, if God granted me life and health!

A RUN FROM A DANGEROUS SNAKE.

We went through prairies, swamps, and forest. At last we came to a spot where once a plantation stood; it was intersected by several little brooks of clear water. My man shouted, “Omemba ompolo!” (a large snake), and I saw at the same moment an enormous black shining snake (a species of naja), one of the most dangerous species. I knew he was coming in our direction and belonged to that species that when bullied raises itself erect and wants to fight. He was a terribly big fellow, one of the largest I had ever seen; he looked loathsome and horrid; I could see distinctly his triangular head. I fired in haste, hoping to break his spine, but missed the reptile, and immediately he erected himself to a few feet in height and whistled in the most horrid manner, his tongue coming out sharp and pointed like an arrow. I fired again right into his head, and I do not know why, but I missed him again. Then the fellow gave a spring; I really do not know if he came toward me, for I fled panic-stricken, and when at a safe distance reloaded my gun with small shot, and returned to the spot where I had shot at him. I spied something just getting out of a little rivulet. It was the very snake itself which had crossed the water, and before he was entirely out I fired and killed him, or rather I succeeded in breaking his spine and making him helpless for attack or for running away. But he was not dead, and when I approached him he again gave a sharp whistle. I cut a branch of a tree for a stick to kill him with, and then examined his fangs: they were of enormous size, and almost an inch in length.

This snake was about ten feet long. We left it on the spot, taking its head and tail with us, which we carefully packed in leaves, for we wanted to show to our fellows of the camp what a big snake we had killed.

This species of naja is the only one I have ever seen which could erect itself.

One day I witnessed a fearful scene. A man, a native of Goree, an island on the coast of Senegambia, who had the reputation of being a snake charmer and was then at the Gaboon, had succeeded in capturing one of these large naja. He was a bold man, and prided himself on never being afraid of any snake, however venomous the reptile might be; nay, not only was he not afraid of any of them, but he would fight with any of them and get hold of them.

I had often seen him with snakes in his hands. He was careful, of course, to hold them just by the neck below the head, in such a manner that the head could not turn on itself and bite him.

That day he brought into a large open place, perfectly bare of grass, one of these wild naja that he had just captured, and was amusing himself by teasing the horrid and loathsome creature when I arrived. It was a huge one!

Most of the people of the village had fled, and those natives who like myself were looking on, kept a long way off. Not a Mpongwe man, not a single inhabitant of the whole region I have explored, would have ever dared to do what the Goree man did.

Two or three times, as the snake crawled on the ground, we made off in the opposite direction with the utmost speed, myself, I am afraid, leading off in the general stampede; though I had provided myself with a gun.