to the inferior animals; there are not wanting instances in which man himself has become their victim. In the “Bombay Courier” of August 31, 1799, the following dreadful incident is recorded. “A Malay prow was making for the port of Amboyna; but the pilot, finding she could not enter it before dark, brought her to anchor for the night, close under the island of Celebes. One of the crew went on shore in quest of betel-nuts in the woods, and on his return lay down, as it is supposed, to sleep on the beach. In the course of the night he was heard by his comrades to scream out for assistance. They immediately went on shore; but it was too late, for an immense Snake of this species had crushed him to death. The attention of the monster being entirely occupied by his prey, the people went boldly up to it, cut off its head, and took both it and the body of the man on board their boat. The Snake had seized the poor fellow by the right wrist, where the marks of the fangs were very distinct; and the mangled corpse bore evident signs of being crushed by the monster’s twisting itself round the neck, head, breast, and thigh. The length of the Snake was about thirty feet; its thickness equal to that of a moderate-sized man; and on extending its jaws, they were found wide enough to admit at once a body of the size of a man's head.”
The opportune rescue of a poor sailor from a similar fate has been made the subject of a well-known painting by Mr. Daniell, which has been copied in the Oriental Annual, and which we here repeat. It is a spirited and graphic scene, though the details of the Serpent's body and head are not
