e in want
of food; but I felt that I must be more hungry than I then was, before I
could be tempted to eat a piece of the hideous monster. When I told him
so, he smiled, enough to say, "Wait a little till you have seen it
roasted." I had my axe in my belt. He asked me for it, and taking it
in his hand cut away a number of chips from the drier part of the tree,
and also some of the smaller branches. Having piled them up on a broad
part of the trunk near the water, he came back to ask me for a light. I
told him that if I had tinder I could get it with the help of the pan of
my gun. Away he went, scrambling along the branches, and in a short
time returned with a bird's nest, which he held up in triumph. It was
perfectly dry, and I saw would burn easily. In another minute he had a
fire blazing away. I was afraid that the tree itself might ignite.
Duppo pointed to the water to show that we might easily put it out if it
burned too rapidly. He next cut off some slices from the body of the
boa, and stuck them on skewers in the Indian fashion over the fire.
Though I had before fancied that I could not touch it, no sooner had I
smelt the roasting flesh than my appetite returned. When it was done,
Duppo ate a piece, and made signs that it was very good. I, at length,
could resist no longer; and though it was rather coarse and tough, I was
glad enough to get something to stop the pangs of hunger. True ate up
the portion we gave him without hesitation. Duppo then cut several
slices, which, instead of roasting, he hung up on sticks over the fire
to dry, throwing the remainder into the water.

He tried his best to amuse me by an account of a combat his father once
witnessed in the depths of the forest between two huge boas, probably of
different species. One lay coiled on the ground, the other had taken
post on the branch of a tree. It ended by the former seizing the head
of its opponent with its wide open jaws, sucking in a part of its huge
body, gradually unwinding it from the tree. It had attempted, however,
a dangerous operation. Suddenly down came the tail, throwing its coils
round the victor, and the two monsters lay twisting and writhing in the
most terrific manner, till both were dead. I have given the account as
well as I could make it out, but of course I could not understand it
very clearly.

The clouds had cleared away completely, and the sun's rays struck down
with even more than their usual heat. Sti