Forest and Frontiers; Or, Adventures Among the Indians

by Unknown

The pythons closely resemble the true boas, but have the subcaudal plates double; the muzzle is sheathed with plates, and those covering the mouth of the jaws have pits. These snakes, which equal or exceed the boas in magnitude, are natives of India, Africa, and Australia.

Pliny speaks of snakes in India of such a size as to be capable of swallowing stags and bulls; and Valerius Maximus, quoting a lost portion of Pliny's work, narrates the alarm into which the troops under Regulus were thrown by a serpent which had its lair on the banks of the river Bagradas, between Utica and Carthage, and which intercepted the passage to the river. It resisted ordinary weapons, and killed many of the men; till at last it was destroyed by heavy stones thrown from military engines used in battering walls; its length is stated as a hundred and twenty feet. Regulus carried its skin and jaws to Rome, and deposited them in one of the temples, where they remained till the time of the Numantine war.

Diodorus Siculus relates the account of the capture of a serpent, not without loss of life, in Egypt, which measured thirty cubits long; it was taken to Alexandria. Suetonius speaks of a serpent exhibited at Rome in front of the Comitium, fifty cubits in length.

Though we do not refuse credit to these narratives, it must be added that in modern days we have not seen serpents of such magnitude; yet they may exist. Bontius observes that some of the Indian pythons exceed thirty-six feet in length, and says that they swallow wild boars, adding, "there are those alive who partook with General Peter Both, of a recently swallowed hog cut out of the belly of a serpent of this kind."

These snakes, he observes, are not poisonous, but strangle a man or other animal by powerful compression. The Ular Sawa, or great Python of the Sunda Isles, is said to exceed when full-grown, thirty feet in length; and it is narrated that a "Malay prow being anchored for the night under the Island of Celebes, one of the crew went ashore, in search of betel nut, and, as was supposed, fell asleep on the beach, on his return. In the dead of night, his companions on board were aroused by dreadful screams; they immediately went ashore, but they came too late, the cries had ceased—the man had breathed his last in the folds of an enormous serpent, which they killed. They cut off the head of the snake and carried it, together with the lifeless body of their comrade, to the vessel; the right wrists of the corpse bore the marks of the serpent's teeth, and the disfigured body showed that the man had been crushed by the constriction of the reptile round the head, neck, breast, and thigh."

Mr. McLeod, in his voyage of H.M.S. Alceste, after describing the mode in which a python on board, sixteen feet in length, crushed and gorged a goat, the distressing cries of which on being introduced into the serpent's cage, could not but excite compassion, goes on to say that during a captivity of some months at Whidah, in the kingdom of Dahomey, on the coast of Africa, he had opportunities of observing pythons of more than double that size, and which were capable of swallowing animals much larger that goats or sheep. "Governor Abson," he adds, "who had for thirty-seven years resided at Fort William, one of the African Company's settlements there, describes some desperate struggles which he had seen, or which had come to his knowledge, between the snakes and wild beasts as well as the smaller cattle, in which the former were always victorious. A negro herdsman belonging to Mr. Abson, and who afterwards limped for many years about the fort, had been seized by one of these monsters by the thigh; but from his situation in a wood the serpent in attempting to throw himself around him got entangled in a tree; and the man being thus preserved from a state of compression, which would instantly have rendered him quite powerless, had presence of mind enough to cut with a large knife which he carried about with him, deep gashes in the neck and throat of his antagonist, thereby killing him, and disengaging himself from his frightful situation. He never afterwards, however, recovered the use of his limb, which had sustained considerable injury from the fangs and mere force of his jaws."

Ludolph states that enormous snakes exist in Ethiopia: and Bosman informs us that entire men have been found in the gullet of serpents on the Gold coast. In the "Oriental Annual" is the following narrative, explanatory of a well-known picture by W. Daniell: "A few years before our visit to Calcutta," says the writer, "the captain of a country ship while passing the Sunderbunds sent a boat into one of the creeks to obtain some fresh fruits, which are cultivated by the few miserable inhabitants of this inhospitable region. Having reached the shore the crew moored the boat under a bank, and left one of their party to take care of her."

During their absence, the lascar who remained in charge of the boat, overcome by heat, lay down under the seats and fell asleep. While he was in this happy state of unconsciousness an enormous boa, python, emerged from the jungle, reached the boat, had already coiled its huge body round the sleeper, and was in the very act of crushing him to death, when his companions fortunately returned at this auspicious moment, and attacking the monster, severed a portion of its tail, which so disabled it that it no longer retained the power of doing mischief. The snake was then easily despatched, and was found to measure, as stated, sixty-two feet and some inches in length. It is hardly probable that the snake had fairly entwined round the man, for the sudden compression of the chest, had the snake exerted its strength, would have been instantly fatal.

In March, 1841, a singular circumstance occurred at the gardens of the Zoological Society, which at the time caused no little surprise. A python, eleven or twelve feet long, and one about nine feet long, were kept together in a well-secured cage; both had been fed one evening, the larger one with three guinea pigs and a rabbit; but, as it would appear, his appetite was unsatiated. The next morning, when the keeper came to look into the cage, the smaller python was missing—its escape was impossible—and the question was what had become of it?

The truth was evident—its larger companion had swallowed it. There it lay torpid, and bloated to double its ordinary dimensions. How it accomplished the act is not known, but we may imagine a fearful struggle to have taken place, as wreathing round each other they battled for the mastery; unless, indeed, the victim was itself torpid and incapable of resistance.