The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 316: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE TIGER 287 sickly and revolting effluvium began to circle about the Burker as he sat up in the tree. It grew more and more intense; the whole atmosphere around him seemed poisoned. He thought that the strongest life could not remain proof against that disgusting odour; again did a species of vertigo seize upon him, and again did he clutch the branches with all his power in order to save himself from falling. Aroused by that effort, more mechanical than voluntary at the time, he again looked down to behold the doings of the snake. It was preparing to enjoy the fruits of its triumph, to banquet after its own fashion upon its victim, to partake of its horrid meal. The Burker could scarcely believe the evidence of his own senses when he perceived that the snake was preparing to swallow the lubricated and elongated carcass of the tiger. The reptile’s head was of a smallness and its neck of a narrowness in comparison with the bulk of its body at the thickest part, that it seemed impossible for even an object a quarter as great as the dead wild beast to be swallowed in such a manner. How great therefore was the Burker’s amazement, how breathless his horror how fearful the interest which he experienced, when he perceived the jaws of the snake open to an extent which readily allowed them to suck in, as it were, the head of the tiger. With its tail still retaining a firm hold of the branch of the tree, as if on this support depended the entire muscular power which the reptile possessed, it proceeded slowly, and it even appeared, painfully, to suck in the remainder. This appalling process lasted for nearly half an hour; then slowly did the boa disengage its tail from the branch, and as much of its length as had remained suspended to the tree dropped heavily to the ground. The snake now lay completely still; its head was buried some- where amidst its coils, so that the vibrating eyes were no longer looking up at the Burker. He could perceive where, in the thickest part of its body, the mass of the swallowed tiger lay, for there was a tremendous bulging out of the reptile’s form, defining the complete configuration of that degluted mass. For nearly four hours had the Burker now remained in the tree, and he began to recollect something he had once heard or read of the torpid state in which reptiles remain for a long while after having partaken of a meal. Still he GOMIIGdoG SS) (S@)