Library of Cryptozoology

The seas are little explored (1857), and there are legends of ichthyological marvels which remind us of European romantic zoology. I was told by Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton of a fish, possibly one of the Murænidæ, measuring nine feet long by three in diameter: the shape was somewhat like a leech, both extremities being similar; the ribs resembled, but were rather flatter than, those of a bullock, and the flesh had the appearance of beef. A specimen, he said, had lately been brought from Kipombui, a small harbour opposite Zanzibar; the prey, however, is always cut up as soon as caught.

"Abdullah, my father, killed the snake and saw its cock's comb. Truly he was a brave man, my father. Often he would tell the tale of how he passed along the path frequented by this terrible snake, with a bowl of steaming porridge on his head: how the snake had suddenly shot its great head out of its hole, high up in a dead tree, and had struck at his head: how the jaws plunged into the scalding porridge and the snake dropped onto the path, writhing and twisting in its last death agony."

Susi, to whom this snake [the mamba] is known in the Shupanga tongue as "Bubu," describes it as about twelve feet long, dark in colour, of a dirty blue under the belly, with red markings like the wattles of a cock on the head. The Arabs go so far as to say that it is known to oppose the passage of a caravan at times. Twisting its tail round a branch, it will strike one man after another in the head with fatal certainty. Their remedy is to fill a pot with boiling water, which is put on the head and carried under the tree! The snake dashes his head into this and is killed—the story is given for what it is worth. It would seem that at Ujiji the natives, as in other places, cannot bear to have snakes killed. The "Chatu," a species of python, is common, and, from being highly favoured, becomes so tame as to enter houses at night. A little meal is placed on the stool, which the uncanny visitor laps up, and then takes its departure—the men significantly say they never saw ...