No dog of healthy instinct is able to pass
an echidna without some sort of an attempt upon its life. The long
tubular nose of the echidna is the vital spot. This is guarded with such
shrewdness and determination as to be impregnable. But the dog which
pursues the proper tactics, and is wily and patient, sooner or
later-regardless of the alleged poisonous spur--seizes one of the hind
legs, and the conflict quickly comes to an end.
By the blacks the echidna, which is known as "Coombee-yan," is placed on
the very top of the list of those dainties which the crafty old men
reserve for themselves under awe-inspiring penalties.
Next in size to the echidna is the white-tipped rat (UROMYS HIRSUTIS?),
water-loving, nocturnal in its habits, fierce and destructive. A
collateral circumstance revealed absolute proof of its existence, which
had previously depended upon vague statements of the blacks. Cutting
firewood in the forest one morning, I came across a carpet snake, 12 feet
long, laid out and asleep in a series of easy curves, with the sun
revealing unexpected beauty in the tints and in the patterns of the skin.
Midway of its length was a tell-tale bulge, and before the axe shortened
it by a head, I was convinced that here was a serpent that had waylaid
and surprised or beguiled a fowl.
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