The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-04-28

pare a hre and get ready the cooking
pots. 49,.
l noticed that the water was very
high, and had notleft more than a hum
bred yards clear round my hut, which
was, however, still some ten or twelve
| feet above the level of the flood. /
placed my gun outside, and crawled
into the doorway of the hut. You must
know that the only light that enters
these buildings is by the doorway, so
when blocked up this, the only aper-
ture, the interior was rather dark. l
knew that my flint and steel box were
stuck up in the hatch of the roof, and
these could use to obtain light, in case
| the embers were not smouldering in the
center of the hut, where usually kept
up a fire. a fua}.
|. 1 could not see a sign of q spark
amongst the ashes when 1 first entered
the hut; and as the evening was closing
| in, / thought l might have difficulty in
1 making fire, as the dew was SO heavy
that all the wood became damp, even
inside the hut; so l lay down and blew
amongst the white-wood ashes, to try
and rouse flame.
Whilst was occupied, fancied that
heard something move amongst the
blankets that lay by the side of the hut
1 looked at the spot, and there, to my
astonishment, saw gigantic snake,
which appeared nearly as large round
as my body The animal was coiled up
amongst my bedding, but had about
three feet, head and neck, stretched out
and pointed at me-its forked tongue
now and again shooting out some inch
or two from its mouth. .... 'a
! The instant that saw the monster,
jumped upon my feet, and looked
around for a weapon, but there was not
one at hand. My gun l had placed out
side; my large knife | had left with
Plache, to enable him to cut up the
buck, and, in fact, was unarmed. A
cold shudder came over me when l
realized the state of affairs; the door of
| the hut was only two feet high, and to
| escape, therefore, Unjust crawl out, and
felt certain that if stopped down, the
snake would instantly dart at me-.
was not at all aware what power
these snakes might possess; l had heard
that they could kill nearly full grown
calves, and could crush and swallow a
buck; and therefore, believed mon
| ster like this would make short work of
me. | might fight and struggle, but.
unarmed, W hat could l dop
How long | stood looking at the
snake, l do not know, but it could not
have been many seconds, although the
time appeared minutes; suddenly l re-
membered that my Caffre had, few
days before, asked me to allow him to
| place his assegai in my hut, because the
night-dew caused the blade to rust when
| the weapon was exposed. Here, then,
was hope for me, for knew that the
man had not taken away the assegai
! with him.
L scarcely dared take my eyes off the
snake, lest the brute should dart at me;
but giving glance round the upper
part of the hut, saw the handle of the
blade protruding from the thatch and
nearly within reach of me. Something
seemed to tell me that the instant /
moved the snake would spring at me.
/, however, raised my hand and arm
very slowly towards the instrument,
and at length, by bending over a little,
managed to grasp the handle. As
did so, the snake, which had gradually
uncoiled during my movements, darted
towards me. dumped aside, and pulled
out the broad-bladed assegai, which had
been sharpened to the keenness of
razor; but the snake moved like light
ming, and although he had missed me
in the first dart, he recovered himself
instantly and sprung at me again.
Before l could make cut at him, his
teeth caught in my leather trowsers,
and he thus obtaineda strong hold, and
with pull as sudden as his lunge, he
dragged my feet from under ME and
brought me to the gronnd; a big fold of
his body rolled over his head, and fell
upon my legs, which it weighed to the
ground as if loaded wagon were on.
them. ...-.. s
He managed this in very short time;
but | was not idle, for / knew that if he
could once manage to press down nv
chest, or my arms, he might kill me.
Now, the feeling that first came upon
me was certainly not very pleasant
one, because l was without weapon;
but as soon as | grasped the assegai |
knew that l was safe; consequently,
when he really attacked me, felt as
ohouSh ~ "OlO d ploCc VI LII puuenCc on
his part, for | never expected the affair
would have been as dangerous to me as
it proved to be. These things take
some time to tell, but they do not take
long to happen, and struggle for life
or death is frequently decided in half
minute. So it was with me. The in
slant the snakes body came over on
my legs, twisted round, and sliced it
with my assegai. gave two terrible
gashes, and the monster, releasing its
hold of my feathers, sprung at my face.
l raised my arm instinctively to protect
myself, which saved me from being bit
ten; but | was knocked down fiat, and
the brute was again on me; but this
time l caught him by the neck with my
left hand and in an instant had nearly
severed his head with the assegai. I
scrambled away from the monster,
which was writhing about in its agony,
and escaped from the hut. Then 1 be-
gan to examine how had Jared in the
fight. To my surprise Hound that few
deep scratches near the ankle and a bite
near the wrist, neither of which was
OF very great Importance, were all the
wounds which l had sustained. For
some days afterwards, however, suf-
fered great deal of pain in my leps.