To convey an animal like this, several buffaloes and a whole system of cordage were necessary. Night approached; confident in our nooses, we left the place, proposing to return next morning and complete the capture; but we reckoned without our host. In the night the boa changed his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of basalt, and finally succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting clear off. When I had assured myself that our prey had escaped us, and that all search for the reptile in the neighbourhood would be futile, my disappointment was very great, for I much doubted if a like opportunity would ever present itself. It is only on rare occasions that accidents are caused by these enormous reptiles. I once knew of a man becoming their victim. It happened thus:-- This man having committed some offence, ran away, and sought refuge in a cavern. His father, who alone knew the place of his concealment, visited him occasionally to supply him with food. One day he found, in place of his son, an enormous boa sleeping. He killed it, and found his son in its stomach. The poor wretch had been surprised in the night, crushed to death, and swallowed. The curate of the village, who had gone in quest of the body to give it burial, and who saw the remains of the boa, described them to me as being of an almost incredible size. Unfortunately this circumstance happened at a considerable distance from my habitation, and I was only made acquainted with the particulars when it was too late to verify them myself: but still there is nothing surprising that a boa which can swallow a deer should as easily swallow a man. Several other feats of a similar nature were related to me by the Indians. They told me of their comrades, who, roaming about the woods, had been seized by boas, crushed against trees, and afterwards devoured; but I was always on my guard against Indian tales, and I am only able to verify positively the instance, I have just cited, which was related to me by the curate of the village, as well as by many other witnesses. Still there would be nothing surprising that a similar accident should occur more than once. The boa is one of the serpents the least to be feared among those infesting the Philippines. Of an exceedingly venomous description is one which the Indians call dajon-palay, (rice leaf). Burning with a red-hot ember is the only antidote to its bite; if that be not promptly resorted to, horrible sufferings are followed by certain death. The alin-morani is another kind, eight or ten feet long, and, if anything, more dangerous still than the "rice leaf," inasmuch as its bite is deeper, and more difficult to cauterise. I was never bitten by any of these reptiles, despite the slight precaution I observed in wandering about the woods, by night as well as by day.