is as bad as bad can be. What is the next?"

"The next is what they call the puff adder. It is a very heavy,
sluggish animal, and very thick in proportion to its length, and when
attacked in front, it cannot make any spring. It has, however, another
power, which, if you are not prepared for it, is perhaps equally
dangerous--that of throwing itself backward in a most surprising manner.
This is, however, only when trod upon or provoked; but its bite is very
deadly. Then two of the mountain adders are among the most dangerous
snakes here. The mountain adder is small, and, from its not being so
easily seen and so easily avoided, is very dangerous, and its bite as
fatal as the others."

"I trust that is the end of your catalogue?"

"Not exactly; there is another, which I have specimens of, but whose
faculties I have never seen put to the test, which is called the
spirting snake. It is about three feet long, and its bite, although
poisonous, is not fatal. But it has a faculty, from which its name is
derived, of spirting its venom into the face of its assailant, and if
the venom enters the eye, at which the animal darts it, immediate
blindness ensues. There are a great many other varieties, some of which
we have obtained possession of during our journey. Many of them are
venomous, but not so fatal as the first three I have mentioned.

"Indeed, it is a great blessing that the Almighty has not made the
varieties of snakes aggressive or fierce,--which they are not.
Provided, as they are, with such dreadful powers, if they were so, they
would indeed be formidable; but they only act in self-defence, or when
provoked. I may as well here observe, that the Hottentots, when they
kill any of the dangerous snakes, invariably cut off the head and bury
it; and this they do, that no one may by chance tread upon it, as they
assert that the poison of the fangs is as potent as ever, not only for
weeks but months afterwards."

"That certainly is a corroboration of the story that you told us of the
rattle-snake's fang in the boot."

"It is so; but although there are so many venomous snakes in this
country, it is remarkable how very few accidents or deaths occur from
them. I made an inquiry at the Moravian Mission, where those venomous
snakes are very plentiful, how many people they had lost by their bites,
and the missionaries told me, that out of 800 Hottentots belonging to
the Mission, they had only lost two men by the bites