. The world of the great forest : how animals, birds, reptiles, insects talk, think, work and live . und, he saw footprints of kambis andncheris and other creatures. He was delighted, and at 159 THE WORLD OF THE GREAT FOREST the sight thought that he should soon get a goodmeal. He saw a tree by the water of the same coloras his skin and coiled himself around it and head and neck were in constant motion, lookingout for prey. Surely some animal will come towardsunset, he thought, for that is the time when theycome to drink, He knew well the habits of the kambis and thencheris and ngoa
. The world of the great forest : how animals, birds, reptiles, insects talk, think, work and live . und, he saw footprints of kambis andncheris and other creatures. He was delighted, and at 159 THE WORLD OF THE GREAT FOREST the sight thought that he should soon get a goodmeal. He saw a tree by the water of the same coloras his skin and coiled himself around it and head and neck were in constant motion, lookingout for prey. Surely some animal will come towardsunset, he thought, for that is the time when theycome to drink, He knew well the habits of the kambis and thencheris and ngoasand other animalsupon which helived. Soon an unsus-pecting kambimade his appear-ance, nibbling at afew leaves as shecame toward thepool to have adrink. The bigombama looked ather with glaring^ eyes, and when shecame within a shortdistance of his tree, he made a tremendous spring,and in the twinkling of an eye his body was coiledround the poor creature and squeezed her so tightlythat at last she died. Then the ombama had very hard work, for thekambi was too big for him to swallow. So he used i6o. A HUGE OMBAMA, OR PYTHON all his strength to make the body smaller and smallerby crushing it. It was a slow but sure process, andhe succeeded. When he thought the kambi wasready for eating, he put the head in his mouth, aft-^rit had been properly crushed by his powerful coils,and then began another squeezing process, whichmade the rest of the animal small enough to be grad-ually swallowed. Before the kambi was digested, andwhile it was still whole in his body, it was nearly threetimes the length it had been when alive. Soon after his meal, the big ombama fell asleep, —a lethargic, digestive sleep among the dead leaves onthe ground. The ombamas and omembas always fallinto such sleep when they have had a hearty mealand digest it. Lucky was the big ombama that noenemy passed by, nor a njokoo to trample upon him. After digesting his meal, which took a number ofdays, he awoke, and, encoun
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectanimals, bookyear1901
