Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66 No.406, August 1849Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66 No.406, August 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
of Kaloolah rushed past me: 'Fly, fly, Jon'than!' she wildly exclaimed,
as she dashed forward directly towards the lion. Quick as thought, I
divined her purpose, and sprang after her, grasping her dress, and
pulling her forcibly back, almost from within those formidable jaws.
The astonished animal gave several jumps sideways and backwards,
and stopped, crouching to the ground, and growling and lashing his
sides with renewed fury. It was clearly taken aback by our unexpected
charge upon him, but yet was not to be frightened into abandoning his
prey. His mouth was made up for us, and there could be no doubt, if
his motions _were_ a little slow, that he considered us as good as
gorged." Pulling back Kaloolah, and drawing his knife, Romer awaits,
with desperate determination, the monster's terrible onslaught, when
an unexpected ally arrives to the rescue. "It seemed as if one of the
gigantic creepers I have mentioned had suddenly quitted the canopy
above, and, endowed with life and a huge pair of widely distended
jaws, had darted with the rapidity of lightning upon the crouching
beast. There was a tremendous shaking of the treetops, and a confused
wrestling and jumping and whirling over and about, amid a cloud of
upturned roots and earth and leaves, accompanied with the most terrific
roars and groans. As I looked again, vision grew more distinct.
An immense body, gleaming with purple, green, and gold, appeared
convoluted around the majestic branches overhead, and, stretching down,
was turned two or three times around the struggling lion, whose head
and neck were almost concealed from sight within the cavity of a pair
of jaws still more capacious than his own." A full-grown boa, whose
length is estimated by Mr Romer at about a hundred feet, (much less
than many he subsequently saw, but still "a very respectable-sized
snake,") had dropped a few fathoms of coil from the gigantic tree
around which he was twined, and enveloped the lion, who soon was
crushed to death in the scaly embrace. Jonathan makes no doubt that the
serpent was about to swallow his victim whole, according to the custom
of his kind; and it is certainly to be regretted that the entreaties
of Kaloolah, combined with the "strong sickly odour" diffused by the
boa, prevented his remaining to witness a process of deglutition which,
considering the dimensions of the morsel to be swallowed, could not
have been otherwise than curious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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