170 MANILA AND THE PHILIPPINES.
The skin makes a capital leather, and is used for scab-
bards, creese handles, valises, and fancy leather work.
There is a good demand for it in China and other orien-
tal countries. This in itself would create a very large
slaBghter every year, but, in addition, nearly every native
tribe likes the meat. Many Europeans, who have tried it
from curiosity or necessity, have also taken a liking for
it, and use it occasionally upon the table. The boa itself
has its own natural enemies, so that it has been suffering
an ever increasing persecution with the years. In the
past twenty-five years the destructive causes have been
increased by the demand from zoological gardens, and
the exertions of traveling naturalists and scientific expe-
ditions.
There are several other snakes of the constrictor family,
of which the leading members resemble the small rock
python, the black snake, and the brown snake of Centra^
Europe. The poisonous snakes are unpleasantly numer-
ous. There is a small serpent of a dull color which lies
near the road and attacks almost without provocation.
Its bite is as fatal as that of a rattlesnake. It is known
as the rice-leaf, on account of a fancied resemblance be-
tween it and rice leaves, when they have attained their
growth and begun to wither. There is a large poisonous
snake known as the alinmorani, which is sometimes eleven
feet long, but which averages about six feet. It is ex-
tremely venomous, aggressive, and persistent. Like the
moccasin and copperhead, it is easily killed by a blow
with a pole or long stick. Large numbers of people die
from snake bites in the islands, but the fact seems to
excite little comment.
