re are Fish thus fed and kept onely for the Kings Recreation:
for he will never let any be catched for his use.

[Serpents. The Pimberah of a prodigious bigness.] Of Serpents,
there are these sorts. The Pimberah, the body whereof is as big as
a mans middle, and of a length proportionable. It is not swift, but
by subtilty will catch his prey; which are Deer or other Cattel; He
lyes in the path where the Deer use to pass, and as they go, he claps
hold of them by a kind of peg that growes on his tayl, with which
he strikes them. He will swallow a Roe Buck whole, horns and all;
so that it happens sometimes the horns run thro his belly, and kill
him. A Stag was caught by one of these Pimberahs, which siesed him
by the buttock, and held him so fast, that he could not get away,
but ran a few steps this way and that way. An Indian seeing the
Stag run thus, supposed him in a snare, and having a Gun shot him;
at which he gave so strong a jerk, that it pulled the Serpents head
off while his tayl was encompassing a Tree to hold the Stag the better.

[The Polonga.] There is another venomous Snake called Polongo, the
most venomous of all, that kills Cattel. Two sorts of them I have seen,
the one green, the other of a reddish gray, full of white rings along
the sides, and about five or fix foot long.

[The Noya.] Another poysonous Snake there is called Noya, of a grayish
colour, about four foot long. This will stand with half his body
upright two or three hours together, and spread his head broad open,
where there appears like as it were a pair of spectacles painted
on it. The Indians call this Noy-Rogerati, that is, a Kings-Snake,
that will do no harm. But if the Polonga and the Noya meet together,
they cease not fighting till one hath kill'd the other.

[The Fable of the Noya and Polonga.] The reason and original of this
fatal enmity between these two Serpents, is this, according to a
Fable among the Chingulays. These two chanced to meet in a dry Season,
when water was scarce. The Polonga being almost famished for thirst,
asked the Noya, where he might go to find a little water. The Noya
a little before had met with a bowl of water in which a Child lay
playing. As it is usual among this people to wash their Children in
a bowl of water, and there leave them to tumble and play in it. Here
the Noya quenched his thirst, but as he was drinking, the Child that
lay in the bowl, out of his innocency and play, hit him on the Head
with hi