When we had satisfied our hunger, we skinned the serpent and then
made a present of it to the Chinese; but they gave us to understand
that they would not touch it, at which I was greatly surprised,
since they will generally eat anything. I was afterwards convinced
that this was all pretence, for on returning some hours later from
our hunting excursion and going into one of their huts, we found
them all seated round a large dish in which were pieces of roast
meat of the peculiar round shape of the serpent. They wanted to
hide the dish in a great hurry, but I entered very quickly and gave
them some money to be allowed to taste it. I found the flesh
particularly tender and delicate, even more tender than that of a
chicken.
But I have quite forgotten to describe our hunting excursion. We
asked the labourers if they could not put us on the track of a
tiger; they described to us a part of the wood where one was
reported to have taken up his abode a few days previously, and we
immediately set off. We had great difficulty in forcing our way
through the forest, having, at every instant, to clamber over
prostrate trees, creep through brambles or cross over swamps, but we
had, at all events, the satisfaction of progressing, which we
certainly should not have had in the forests of Brazil, where such
an undertaking would have been impracticable.
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