164 MARTIN RATTLER.

gash just at the root of that formidable appendage,
which rendered it harmless. “ Hi-i,” shouted Sambo
in triumph, as he sprang towards the animal’s head
and inflicted a similar gash in the neck; “dare, you
quite finish, ole feller.”

“Musha, but that’s thrue!” ejaculated Barney, who
stood staring at the whole proceeding like one ina
trance. “Did ye iver git a bite, Sambo?”

Barney received no answer, for his sable friend was
already up to his waist in the water with five or six
of his brethren, who were flourishing their long poles
and driving the snorting alligators towards the shore,
where their comrades, with lassos and harpoons,
awaited them. Sometimes they harpooned the al-
ligators, and then fastening lassos to their heads and
tails, or to a hind leg, dragged them ashore; at other
times they threw the lasso over their heads at once,
without taking the trouble to harpoon them, It was:
a terrible and a wonderful sight to witness the Negroes
in the very midst of a shoal of these creatures, any
one of which could have taken a man into his jaws
quite easily, whence, once between these long saw-like
rows of teeth, no man could have escaped to tell how
sharp they were. The creatures were so numerous
that it was impossible to thrust a pole into the mud
without stirring up one of them; but they were so