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