He was
very much interested, and waited behind a tree to see what would happen
next. In about a quarter of an hour he saw the little snakes come out
again; but when he once more showed himself, they hid as before, and the
mother quickly glided out of sight.
The Puff-adder of Africa, when roused, will breathe in air and puff
itself out to an extraordinary extent. Being, like all these cold-blooded
creatures, very fond of warmth, it often comes at night to fires made
by herdsmen or travellers; and so it happened that a traveller in South
Africa, sleeping soundly one night beside the fire, wrapped in his cloak,
was awakened by a weight on his chest, and found to his horror that a
puff-adder had coiled itself up inside his shirt. His first thought was to
seize the unwelcome visitor and throw it from him, but remembering that it
probably would only injure him if disturbed, he had the presence of mind to
let it remain in the warm nest it had found for itself, until, roused by a
light, it slowly uncoiled itself and crept away.
Of the serpents which are dreaded--not for their bite, for they have no
poison-fangs--but for their great strength and daring, and for the way
in which they coil round their victims, crushing them to death in their
terrible embrace--the most dangerous are the Python of the Old World, and
the Boa-constrictor of the New.
In one respect all serpents are boa-constrictors, for a very small one
has been seen in the act of thus crushing a bird; but the great boa which
inhabits tropical America is a giant, which has been known to swallow even
a buffalo whole, after it has crushed it to mummy, and broken all its
bones.
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