Snake Man

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29324, 1 October 1960, Page 3

Snake Man

Snake Man. The Story of C. J. P. lonides. By Alan Wykes. Hamish Hamilton. 221. pp.

This book begins with a scene of great commotion in an African village, occasioned by the sudden and lethal attack made, one night, by a mamba snake upon a group of eight Africans as they lay huddled in sleep. As the mamba figures frequently in the narrative that follows, it is worth noting at this point the author’s description of it, as of a slender, brilliant green creature that glides incredibly fast through thick foliage. Other snakes met with in the book include the gaboon viper, the puff adder (grimly on the dust cover), and the spitting cobra which spits up to 12 feet with, deadly aim, taking the eyes of its victim as its target, so that it causes temporary blindness. The

author describes the capture of these snakes, achieved by means of a metal grab-stick in three sections which the. African native wields with considerable skill. A like skill is exemplified by C. J. P. lonides, whom the author accompanied on several snakehunting expeditions. To read of the cool, deliberate manner in which lonides capture^.— for example a garboon viper, is to sense at once the perfect timing which only an expert in such operations can exhibit. All this makes a fascinating story, Woven into it is the further story of how lonides came to be in Africa at all. We are told of his eventful days as a student at Rugby School, of his service, with the King’s African Rifles, and of his subsequent, big game hunting in Africa. It was his ambition, as a young man, to secure an appointment in the' Tanganyika Game Department. This he managed to do in 1933, when he was posted to the Kilwa district, where the first task assigned him was “the thinning out of the elephant population.” But his duet interest was to lie in snakes; so much’ so that he has _ since become a foremost authority in this field. The story of his life as told in these pages is indeed a captivating one. Good illustrations accompany the text.