Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

314 THINKING BLACK
some of his own prowess as substitute. His story ran that
as he came shambling along on the return journey, lo ! a
long boa-constrictor blocking the way. Sprang at it, slew
the snake, seriously skinned it, and finally cut up these
steaks ; witness, my apologetic messenger in the moon-
light oflfering me snake veal for the lost venison !
May I here right an old wrong about boas? For,
albeit the boa-constrictor is a world-word, it is quite
certain the glamorous associations of this awful name
are wildly astray. By very common consent the boa-
constrictor, though " mother of all snakes," is the most
timid of African reptiles, the natives declaring that the
mere sight of man so unnerves him that you can go back
hours later and still find him dazed and stock still. A
mere boy who spies this snake in the bush, before darting
oflF to bring up a man with a spear, resorts to the simple
expedient of plucking a spray of leaves and leaving it
dangling before the boa's fascinated eyes.
Not troubling with remoter contingencies, there lies
the fascinated snake lost in wonder at that swaying
bunch of leaves. Gazing, ever gazing at it with a look
that looks whole dictionaries, "the agony of shyness"
this is called. Meanwhile, scramble and scrape, the man
with the spear is speeding on to a sure victory—sure,
that is to say, provided ever and always the reptile's real
name is avoided in speech. " Call him not Lusato," say
the natives, " call him a coil of rope, lest you break the
spell." True, therefore, to this rule, the native who first
sighted it in the forest burst in on the villagers to report