A Lady's Calmness In Danger.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 July 1914, Page 2

A Lady's Calmness In Danger.

An Englishman, in travelling through Ceylon, was the guest of a dookyard official at Trincomalie. "The dinner was excellent,'" ho s-uys, "but when it was about ' half over I was startled by hearing the wife of my host tell the native servant to place a bowl of milk on a deerskin near her chair. Although she spoke as calmly as giving an o-rdi-nary order, I knew at once that there was a snake somewhere in the room, for they prefer milk to anything else. As a hasty movement might have meant certain death, we all sat like statues ; but, for all that, my eyes were inspecting every nook and corner, with a peep under the table. However, it was not until the milk was placed on the deer-skin that the snake appeared. And then, to our ama/.emcnt, a large cobra uncoiled itself from my hostess's a-iVle, and glided towards the boil, when, of course, it was - lmediately ■ illed. But just fancy the -erve of the woman, though she fainted when the thing lay dead on the floor. How many could h.-r-e re -mined motionless under such unnerving circumstances '?"