Scarborough, Ann & McLinden, Derek (2005) Reflections of Nyasaland & Malawi: More Expatriate Recollections, Scarima Publications, p. 129

I moved us into a smaller, pleasanter house in the [Shire Highlands] foothills, about 300 feet above the river, and it was here that Madamat met the nsongwe – the "crowing, crested cobra" which no white man has ever seen. Madamat was walking up one night to keep guard on the verandah, when the snake crossed his path. He arrived looking paler than I have ever seen any African – and shaking. It had, he said, a "red hat" (comb) and crowed like a cockerel! Next day, he took me to see the place where it had appeared. There were marks on the sand and a branch was broken in the tree into which it had vanished.

Note: This story is told by Betty Matthews, who lived in Nyasaland in the late 1940s.

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