St. Landry democrat., 1881-09-03

Gle presented itself. Dangling from the
under side of the log, struggling and
shrieking, hung one of the natives-a
brother of Benu, named Oati. At the
same instant perceived the folds OF a
monstrous, mottled snake, rising in
great loops above the log, and heard q
native vino was standing on the farther
end of the log, screaming :" u'1or te-
hal! U'lar letaj! (Great snake! Great
snake!l "Tusahu! tasah~" (Help!
hslpD "Come forth, white chief, with
your fire gum
Without waiting to get my gun, for
poor Oati's shrieks were awful to hear.
| seized a large handspike lying near,
and dashing out on the log, delivered
two heavy blows upon the serpent 5
writhing folds, either of which | feel
certain would have broken an ox's
back. Feeling these, the monster
dropped Oati, whom it had seized by
the thigh in its mouth and was holding
up by main strength, and rearing its
huge, fattened head six or seven feet
above the log, looked me full in the
face, its great eyes dilated with fury and
its tongue licking the air with a strange,
kissing sound.
1t was a sight to startle the bravest
of men. | struck at it's head and leaped
backward on the log, but lost my foot
ing when close to the bank of the gully,
and, slipping off the tree-trunk, went
tearing down through the vines to the
bottom. The fall did not hurt me
much, but | was snarled up in vines.
and it was some moments before could
struggle out, or even clear away the
foliage sufficiently to see whether the
great snake was after me or not. |
could hear a tremendous shouting and
noise, however, and soon the reports OF
several guns.
The moment got clear of the Hanas,
| ran through the bushes and grass,
down the bed of the gully; and here |
came upon Oati, crawling off on his
hands and knees. His thigh was bleed
ing profusely from several deep, ugly
looking holes, and his ankle was out OF
joint from the fall.
There was so savage battle going
on above US, that my shouts for assist.
ance were unnoticed. After several eff.
forts l succeeded in throwing Oati' S
ankle-joint back into place; and then,
binding up his leg as best | could,
helped him along to place where it
was possible for us to climb out.
But altogether this had occupied tif-
teen or twenty minutes; so that the
fight which Myers and Benu ANIME,
| Fola and the rest were making with the
| U'lar Ieh0E' was now for the most part
over The shots had driven the SER
pent back into the log; whence, &C
cording to Oati, it had darted its head
out to seize him, as he walked across.
Myers was now watching for it-firine
| whenever it thrust its head out from
the hole. He said that he had put two
balls clean through it's body before it
had commenced to slide back into its
| retreat.
Benu now brought an axe, and in the
course of an hour the great log was cut
off, close to the bank, and tell down
with loud crash-one end of it-into
the gully. 1t split as it fell, and the
body of the python was thrown partly
out OF the hollow-but the crack closing
somewhat again, as the end of the log
came to rest on the bottom of thegulch,
the great reptile was held fast within
it. For awhile it writhed and twisted
there, emitting a most horrible odor.
Seeing it was caught fast, the natives
went down and beat it to death with
handspikes. They then cut away the
log and let its body fall out.
With my pocket-rule | measured of
ten-foot pole, and when l say that
placed this pole three times along the
dead serpent's body, and had still a foot
to spare off its tail, perhaps l shall be
accused of telling "a snake story
nevertheless. it's the truth. At the
middle, its body was nearly as thick as
mans; and it's scales were as large as
clam shells. But the most ferocious
feature was its great, bony, tlattened
head, witt its huge gaping jaws and
great lidless eyes. Its colors were 8
pale yellow along the belly, shading te
coppery hues ON its sides, with livid
brown and black markings along the
back.
| There is little doubt that this mon
strous creature had long had its lurking.
place in the old log; and it made ms
shudder to think how many times we
had all passed back and forth over it:
head. Youths Companion.