Mr. M'Leod, in his ' Voyage of H.M.S. Alceate; gives the following painfully vivid account of a serpent, a native of Borneo, 16 feet long, and of about 18 inches in circumference, which was on board. There were originally two; but one, to use Mr. M`Leod's expression, "sprawled overboard and was drowned." " During his stay at Ryswick," says Mr. M'Leod, speaking of the survivor, " he is said to have been usually entertained with a goat for dinner, once in every three or four weeks, with occasionally a duck or a fowl by way of a dessert. The live-stock for his use during the passage, consisting of six goatiof the ordinary size, were sent with him on board, five being considered as a fair allowance for as many months.
" At an early period of the voyage we had an exhibition of his talent in the way of eating, which was publicly performed on the quarter-deck, upon which his crib stood. The sliding part being opened, one of the goats was thrust in, and the door of the cage was shut. The poor goat, as if instantly aware of all the horrors of its perilous situation, immediately began to utter the moat piercing and distressing cries, butting instinctively at the same time, with its head towards the serpent, in self-defence.
" The snake, which at first appeared scarcely to notice the poor animal, soon began to stir a little, and turning his head in the direction of the goat, he at length fixed a deadly and malignant eye on the trembling victim, whose agony and terror seemed to increase ; for previous to the snake seizing his prey, it shook in every limb, but still continuing its unavailing show of attack, by butting at the serpent, which now became sufficiently animated to prepare for the banquet. The first operation was that of darting out his forked tongue, and at the same time rearing a little his head ; then suddenly seizing the goat by the fore-leg with his fangs, and throwing it down, it was encircled in an instant in his horrid folds. So quick indeed and so instantaneous was the act, that it was impossible for the eye to follow the rapid convolution of his elongated body. It was not a regular screw-like turn that was formed, but resembling rather a knot, one part of the body overlaying the other, as if to add weight to the muscular pressure, the more effectually to crush the object. During this time lie continued to grasp with his fangs, though it appeared an unnecessary precaution, that part of the animal which be had first seized. He then slowly and cautiously unfolded himself, till the goat fell dead from his monstrous embrace, when lie began to prepare himself for swallowing it. Placing his mouth in front of the dead
animal, he commenced by lubricating with his saliva that part of the goat, and then taking its muzzle into his mouth, which had, and indeed always has, the appearance of a raw lacerated wound, he sucked it in, as far as the horns would allow. These protuberances opposed some little difficulty, not so much from their extent as from their points; however they also in a very short time disappeared, that is to say, externally; but their progress was still to be traced very distinctly on the outside, threatening every moment to protrude through the skin. The victim had now descended as far as the shoulders ; and it was an astonishing sight to observe the extraordinary action of the snake's muscles when stretched to such an unnatural extent—an extent which must have utterly destroyed all muscular power in any animal that was not like himself endowed with very peculiar faculties of expansion and action at the same time. When his bead and neck had no other appearance than that of a serpent's skin stuffed almost to bursting, still the workings of the muscles were evident ; and his power of suction, as it is erroneously called, unabated ; it was in fact the effect of a contractile muscular power, assisted by two rows of strong hooked teeth. With all this he must be so formed as to be able to suspend for a time his respiration ; for it is impossible to conceive that the process of breathing could be carried on while the mouth and throat were so completely stuffed and expanded by the body of the goat, and the lungs themselves (admitting the trachea to be ever so hard) compressed as they must have been by its passage downwards.
" The whole operation of completely gorging the goat occupied about two hours and twenty minutes, at the end of which time the tumefaction was confined to the middle part of the body, or stomach, the superior parts, which had been so much distended, having resumed their natural dimensions. He now coiled himself up again, and lay quietly in his usual torpid state for about three weeks or a month; when his last meal appearing to be completely digested and dissolved, he was presented with another goat, which he killed and devoured with equal facility. It would appear that almost all he swallows is converted into nutrition, for a small quantity of calcareous matter (and that perhaps not a tenth part of the bones of the animal), with occasionally some of the hairs, seemed to compose his general faeces. . . . .