One of them knocked Fred's helmet off as he marched beside me.

They are easy to kill.

He shot it, and it dropped like a stone, three hundred pounds or more, but the sweat ran down Fred's face for half an hour afterward.
(Since then I have seen pythons kill their prey a score of times.

I never once saw one kill by crushing.

The end of their nose is as hard as iron, and they strike a terrific blow with that, so swift that the eye can not follow it.