On my way to the main road from Trincomalee to Kandy I walked on through the jungle path, about a mile ahead of my followers, to look out for game.Upon arriving at the open country in the neighbourhood of Cowdellai, I got a shot at a deer at a killing distance.She was not twenty yards off, and was looking at me as if spellbound.This provided me with venison for a couple of days.The rapid decomposition of all things in a tropical climate renders a continued supply of animal food very precarious, if the produce of the rifle is alone to be depended upon.Venison killed on one day would be uneatable on the day following, unless it were half-dressed shortly after it was killed; thus the size of the animal in no way contributes to the continuation of the supply of food, as the meat will not keep.Even snipe killed on one morning are putrid the next evening; the quantity of game required for the subsistence of one person is consequently very large.
After killing the deer I stalked a fine peacock, who gave me an hour's work before I could get near him.These birds are very wary and difficult to approach; but I at length got him into a large bush, surrounded by open ground.A stone thrown into this dislodged him, and he gave me a splendid flying shot at about thirty yards.I bagged him with the two-ounce rifle, but the large ball damaged him terribly.There are few better birds than a Ceylon peafowl, if kept for two days and then washed in vinegar: they combine the flavour of the turkey and the pheasant.
I was obliged to carry the bird myself, as my two gun-bearers were staggering under the weight of the deer, and the spare guns were carried by my tracker.We were proceeding slowly along, when the tracker, who was in advance, suddenly sprang back and pointed to some object in the path.It was certainly enough to startle any man.An enormous serpent lay coiled in the path.His head was about the size of a very small cocoa-nut, divided lengthways, and this was raised about eighteen inches above the coil.His eyes were fixed upon us, and his forked tongue played in and out of his mouth with a continued hiss.Aiming at his head, I fired at him with a double-barrelled gun, within four paces, and blew his head to pieces.He appeared stone dead; but upon pulling him by the tail, to stretch him out at full length, he wreathed himself in convulsive coils, and lashing himself out in full length, he mowed down the high grass in all directions.This obliged me to stand clear, as his blows were terrific, and the thickest part of his body was as large as a man's thigh.I at length thought of an expedient for securing him.
Cutting some sharp-pointed stakes, I waited till he was again quiet, when I suddenly pinned his tail to the ground with my hunting-knife, and thrusting the pointed stake into the hole, I drove it deeply into the ground with the butt end of my rifle.The boa made some objection to this, and again he commenced his former muscular contortions.I waited till they were over, and having provided myself with some tough jungle rope (a species of creeper), I once more approached him, and pinning his throat to the ground with a stake, I tied the rope through the incision, and the united exertions of myself and three men hauled him out perfectly straight.I then drove a stake firmly through his throat and pinned him out.He was fifteen feet in length, and it required our united strength to tear off his skin, which shone with a variety of passing colours.On losing his hide he tore away from the stakes; and although his head was shivered to atoms, and he had lost three feet of his length of neck by the ball having cut through this part, which separated in tearing off the skin, still he lashed out and writhed in frightful convulsions, which continued until I left him, bearing as my trophy his scaly hide.These boas will kill deer, and by crushing them into a sort of sausage they are enabled by degrees to swallow them.
There are many of these reptiles in Ceylon; but they are seldom seen, as they generally wander forth at night.There are marvellous stories of their size, and my men assured me that they had seen much larger than the snake now mentioned; to me he appeared a horrible monster.
I do not know anything so disgusting as a snake.There is an instinctive feeling that the arch enemy is personified when these wretches glide by you, and the blood chills with horror.I took the dried skin of this fellow to England; it measures twelve feet in its dry state, minus the piece that was broken from his neck, making him the length before mentioned of fifteen feet.
I have often been astonished that comparatively so few accidents happen in Ceylon from snake-bites; their immense number and the close nature of the country making it a dangerous risk to the naked feet of the natives.
I was once lying upon a sofa in a rest-house at Kandellai, when I saw a snake about four feet long glide in at the open door, and, as though accustomed to a particular spot for his lodging, he at once climbed upon another sofa and coiled himself under the pillow.My brother had only just risen from this sofa, and was sitting at the table watching the movements of his uninvited bedfellow.I soon poked him out with a stick, and cut off his head with a hunting-knife.This snake was of a very poisonous description, and was evidently accustomed to lodge behind the pillow, upon which the unwary sleeper might have received a fatal bite.
Upon taking possession of an unfrequented rest-house, the cushions of the sofas and bedsteads should always be examined, as they are great attractions to snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and all manner of reptiles.
