in where he was he would die. I had no wish to enter the hut again,
and finish him; for his weight was so great that he might hold me to the
ground. So I sat outside and listened to him as he occasionally rolled,
or turned over. It was lucky for me that the snake was a rock-snake,
which is not poisonous. I could fight this fellow on fair terms; for it
was strength against strength, and, with such a weapon as a knife even,
I felt equal to the combat. When, however, one meets a puff-adder or a
cobra, the fight is not equal. You may kill either of these, but if
either has bitten you your death is certain. Of all the creatures with
which I have had to fight, a poisonous snake is the very worst. During
my residence among the Umzimvubu tribe I had many escapes from these
poisonous snakes, some of which I may as well now relate.

Round the kraal in which my hut was situated when I lived among the
Umzimvubu was a fence, made somewhat in the manner in which hurdles are
built in England. One morning I wanted to go out to look for the
cattle, and stepped on the fence, intending to leap over it. As my foot
rested on the upper part, I saw a cobra raise its head from among the
branches, and I instantly fell back, escaping by the smallest distance
from the rapid dart made by the reptile. To have been bitten would have
been certain death, for a full-grown active cobra is sure to kill where
he strikes.

Another escape was from a puff-adder, a snake equally as deadly as the
cobra. I was looking after the cattle in the Umzimvubu country, and
finding the sun very warm I went to an acacia tree, so as to sit in the
shade, and sat down on a rock near which was some moss. My right hand
held my assagies, and as I came to the ground my hand and assagies
rested on a large puff-adder. I felt the reptile move, and seeing my
hand was on its neck, I pressed it down, whilst with my other hand I
drew an assagy and drove it through the head of the serpent, and thus
escaped the bite which would have proved fatal. I scarcely ever passed
a day in the bush without seeing a snake, and I must have killed over a
hundred during my residence among the Umzimvubu.

With considerable difficulty I dragged this snake out of my hut and
pushed it down the sloping side of the bluff, and into the water, where
the tide carried it out, and it probably became a feast for shark, which
were in great numbers outside the harbour.

A few days passed after my ad