ing my wounded hand, which soon began to swell and
grow acutely painful, the throbbing pain extending all the way up my
arm, right to the shoulder. The pain at length became so acute that I
could sit still no longer, I therefore sprang to my feet and began to
pace to and fro; but I had no sooner done so than half-a-dozen of the
savages were beside me, not exactly interfering with me--for I think
they understood pretty clearly what was the matter with me--but making
it perfectly plain that they were watching me, and that only a certain
amount of freedom would be permitted me. Whether they really understood
that I was actually attempting to effect my escape when the snake bit
me, I was never able to determine.

At length the dawn arrived, day broke, the sun rose, and a few of the
savages, taking their bows and arrows, went off into the bush to forage,
as I surmised; and a little later they returned, one after the other,
each bringing some contribution to the common larder, while others
busied themselves in collecting fresh wood and rebuilding the fire.
While they were thus engaged, one of the party, who happened to pass
near the spot where I had been bitten, suddenly uttered a most dreadful
yell, grasped his left foot, looked at it a moment, and then began with
furious haste to search about in the long grass, which he pushed apart
with the blade of his spear. A few seconds later he fell to stabbing
the ground, as it seemed, savagely, finally stooping down and picking up
the still writhing halves of a snake that had been cut clean in two by a
blow of his spear. It was not at all a formidable-looking creature,
being not more than eighteen inches long and perhaps three inches girth
about the thickest part of its body. But it was an ugly, repulsive-
looking brute, its head being heart-shaped, and its body almost the same
thickness for the greater part of its length, terminating in a short,
blunt tail. Its ground colour was a dirty grey, upon which occurred
large, irregular blotches or markings of dull black with a few splashes
of brilliant red here and there. The fellow who had fallen upon it with
such ferocity, and who had evidently been bitten by it, brought the two
writhing fragments and flung them into the fire, in the midst of which
they writhed still more horribly. Then seizing a good, stout, brightly-
glowing brand from the fire, he coolly sat down and applied the almost
white-hot end to the wound, which was in