Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #11 / West African Snakes




This book, West African Snakes ©1961 (reprinted 1965), is one in the series West African Nature Handbooks. I found three of them at Rust Belt Books in Buffalo (you will be seeing examples from those later in this project). The illustrations are great in all of the books. When buying used nature guides I like to see markings indicating that the previous owner had seen the animals described. Birders often put check marks next to birds they have spotted. This book has something special in that regard, a 5x8" index card with the African names of some of the snake species. I don't know what language it is, but I do know from an inscription in one of the other books that these belonged to someone in Lagos, Nigeria. the inscription reads "To Mama with love from Nandia, Lagos, 1962." This is the card.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

People in Africa must be customary to that menace of snakes, as a matter of fact some people there have been bitten so many times that they have developed immunity. It's said that in Africa many some local people use and boil a plant to wake their sexual appetite, luckily in America we have Viagra Online.