The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 111 (Color Image)

0111	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

CHAP. XLIX. SERPENT TRAPPING

about ten palms in girth. They have two forelegs near

the head, but for foot nothing but a claw like the claw of

a hawk or that of a lion. The head is very big, and the

eyes are bigger than a great loaf of bread. The mouth

is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished

with great [pointed] teeth. And in short they are so

fierce-looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and

beast must stand in fear and trembling of them. There

are also smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of

five, and of one pace only.

The way in which they are caught is this. You must

know that by day they live underground because of the

great heat, and in the night they go out to feed, and

devour every animal they can catch. They go also to

drink at the rivers and lakes and springs. And their

weight is so great that when they travel in search of food

or drink, as they do by night, the tail makes a great

furrow in the soil as if a full ton of liquor had been

dragged along. Now the huntsmen who go after them

take them by certain gyn which they set in the track over

which the serpent has past, knowing that the beast will

come back the same way. They plant a stake deep in the

ground and fix on the head of this a sharp blade of steel

made lake a razor or a lance-point, and then they cover

the whole with sand so that the serpent cannot see it.

Indeed the huntsman plants several such stakes and

blades on the track. On coming to the spot the beast

strikes against the iron blade with such force that it

enters his breast and rives him up to the navel, so that

be dies on the spot [and the crows on seeing the brute

dead begin to caw, and then the huntsmen know that

the serpent is dead and come in search of him].

This then is the way these beasts are taken. Those

who take them proceed to extract the gall from the

inside, and this sells at a great price ; for you must know

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