Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/191

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BOAS.
183

quite comme il faut. The story is this: A few years ago the captain of a country ship, while passing the Sunderbunds, sent a boat into one of the creeks to obtain some fresh fruits, which are cultivated by the few miserable inhabitants of that inhospitable region. Having reached the shore, the crew moored the boat under a bank and left one of their party to take care of her. During their absence, the Lascar who remained in charge of it, overcome by heat, lay down under

SERPENT ATTACKING A LASCAR.

the seats, and fell asleep. Whilst he was in this state of unconsciousness an enormous Boa constrictor, (or Python) emerged from the jungle, reached the boat, had already coiled its huge body round