The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

II228 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.night about nine o'clock I heard a curious noise and rustlingoverhead, as if some heavy animal were crawling slowly overthe thatch. The noise soon ceased, and I thought no moreabout it and went to bed soon afterwards. The next afternoonjust before dinner, being rather tired with my day's work, Iwas lying on tlie couch with a book in my hand, when gazingu^Dwards I saw a large mass of something overhead which I hadnot noticed before. Looking more carefully I could see yellowand black marks, and thought it must be a tortoise-shell put upthere out of the way between the I'idge-pole and the I'oof.Continuing to gaze, it suddenly resolved itself into a large snake,compactly coiled up in a kind of knot ; and I could detect hishead and his bright eyes in the very centre of the folds. Thenoise of the evening before was now explained. A python hadclimbed up one of the posts of the house, and had made his wayunder the thatch within a yard of my head, and taken up acomfortable position in the roof—and I had slept soundly allnight directly under him.I called to my two boys who were skinning birds below andsaid, " Here's a big snake in the I'oof ; " but as soon as I hadshown it to them they rushed out of the house and begged meto come out directly. Finding they were too much afraid to doanything, we called some of the labourers in the plantation, andsoon had half a dozen men in consultation outside. One ofthese, a native of Bouru, where there are a great many snakes,said he would get him out, and proceeded to woi'k in a businesslikemanner. He made a strong noose of rattan, and with along pole in tlie other hand poked at the snake, which thenbegan slowly to uncoil itself. He then managed to slip thenoose over its head, and getting it well on to the body, draggedthe animal down. There was a great scuffle as the snake coiledround the chairs and posts to resist his enemy, but at lengththe man caught hold of its tail, rushed out of the house (runningso quick that the creature seemed quite confounded), and triedto strike its head against a tree. He missed liowever, and letgo, and the snake got under a dead trunk close by. It wasagain poked out, and again the Bouru man caught hold of itstail, and running away quickly dashed its head with a swingagainst a tree, and it was tlien easily killed with a hatchet. Itwas about twelve feet long and very thick, capable of doingmuch mischief and of swallowing a dog or a child.I did not get a great many birds here. The most remarkablewere the fine crimson lory, Eos rubi'a—a brush-tongued parroquetof a vivid crimson colour, which was very abundant.Large flocks of them came about the plantation, and foi-med amagnificent object when they settled down upon some floweringtree, on the nectar of which lories feed. I also obtained one ortwo specimens of the fine racquet-tailed kingfisher of Amboyna,Tanysiptera nais, one of the most singular and beautiful of thatbeautiful familv. These birds differ from all other kingfishers