110 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

smoke hung so thick about the ground for some seconds that we could see nothing, and when it cleared away, the reptile was gone. This was alarming ; I must have missed it, and the creature, roused from its torpor by the report, might any minute fasten on one of us. My men however declared that it was hit, and began searching carefully in the rank grass, which was about five feet high, and soon we saw some reeds a few yards off moving. The men at once began beating these down, and one of them catching sight of the python, threw a spear at it and wounded it ; this brought it struggling and writhing out of the grass, and getting a good view of it, I put a bullet into the thickest part of its body, and broke its spine, thus rendering it perfectly helpless. A rope was then fetched and tied round it, and it was dragged up to the house for examination. On measurement it proved to be about fourteen feet three inches long, and thirty inches in circumference at the thickest part of the body. We then found that my first bullet had passed right through the head, but without touching the brain. These reptiles are very common in Uganda, and just about the time that I had killed this one, one of Mtesa's numerous wives was swallowed by one.

For some time after Smith's departure, Mtesa was extremely friendly, and supplied me pretty liberally with food, but afterwards he became very