He then came to the calabash with the rum.
There is no salt there, thought I.
"Rum! ah, Duppy love rum--if it be well strong, let me see Massa Niger,
who put water in a dis rum, eh? Duppy will never touch dat"--a long
pull--"no, no, never touch dat." Here he finished the whole, and placed
the empty vessel beside the others; then gradually sunk back on his hams
with his mouth open, and his eyes starting from the sockets, as he peered
up into the tree, apparently at some terrible object. I looked up also,
and saw a large yellow snake, nearly ten feet long, let itself gradually
down directly over the coffin, between me and the bright glare, (the
outline of its glossy mottled skin glancing in the strong light, which
gave its dark opaque body the appearance of being edged with flame, and
its glittering tongue, that of a red hot wire,) with its tail round a limb
of the cottontree, until its head reached within an inch of the dead man's
face, which it licked with its long forked tongue, uttering a loud hissing
noise.
I was fascinated with terror, and could not move a muscle; at length the
creature slowly swung itself up again, and disappeared amongst the
branches.
Quashie gained courage, as the rum began to operate, and the snake to
disappear. "Come to catch Quaccols Duppy, before him get to Africa, sure
as can be. De metody parson say de debil old sarpant--dat must be old
sarpant, for I never see so big one, so it must be debil.
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