THE COBRA. Some Facts About the Deadly Indian-Serpents.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 184, 25 December 1886, Page 3

THE COBRA. Some Facts About the Deadly IndianSerpents.

While at home on furlough from India a short time ago, I was much amused at finding a very general impression among my friends that to come across a cobra is an everyday kind of occurrence id India* Huw erroneous this idea is may be gathered from the fact that not many days ago a brother officer told me that although he had beon about ten years in India, he had never yet seen a cobra in a wild state* lie is, it is true, probably an exceptiona c ase ; but still it shows that an Englishman may pass a considerable timo in India withoutcoming across one of these venomous reptiles. Cobras, however, are met with quite often enough, and sometimes in very curious and uncomfortable places. For instance, a young lady who had just returned from a ball in a small station in Southern, India, noticed, as she was on the point of getting into bed, that the pillow looked disarranged, and on taking it up to smooth it out Bhe discovered a cobra coiled up underneath it. She called out for assistance, and her father coming to the rescue Bpeedily despatched the obnoxious intruder with a stick. I happened to mention this circumstance to an officer one day, and ho informed ma that the very same thing had happened to him soon after his first arrival in the country, and that in consequence he never got into bed until he had examined, the pillows, In the year 1873, while quartered a* Bellary, on going to the drawing-room of the bungalow, which at that time I Bhared with a friend, I discovered a cobra curled up on the sofa cushion. I hastened out oi the room to fetch a stick, but in doing so, I must, I suppose, have made some noise, as on returning the snake had disappeared. A few evenings later, however, just as my "chum " was leaving the house to go out to dinner, he called out to me that there waß a snake crawling up the steps of the verandah in front of the drawing room. I ran out with a stick, and succeeded in killing the unwelcome visitor. It turned out to be a fairly large cobra, and was in all probability the one which I had seen a few days previously on the sofa. It is, however, in the bathrooms of an Indian bungalow that cobras, when met with within doors, are most frequently encountered, aa they come there in pursuit of the frogs which delight to take up their quarters there ; for froggy is an article of diet to which the> cobra is very partial. An officer of the Madras carairy, since deceased, told m 3 that when quartered at Arcot he one day observed in his bathroom, emerging from, tbo waste-water pipe, the head of a cobra, which was holding in its mouth a frog. The pipe was too narrow to admit of the snake'swithdrawing his head unless he released hia victim ; this, however, from unwillingness to forego his meal, he would not do, and in, eonsequonco paid the penalty for his gluttony with his life. One day my wife's ayah came running* into our bedroom saying there was a large snake in the bath room. Arming myself aa usual with a etick, I went into the bathroom jutt in time to see the snake disappear into the waste water pipe, which ran under another Mnall room to the back of th© house, where the water tound i*s outlet. The servants stationed themselves at the outlet, while I endeavoured^ to drive the reptile out from the rear, first with my stick, and afterward by pouring the contents of a kettle of boiling water down the pipe. Both attempts to dislodge the intruder from the position proving ineffectual, I commenced a vigorous assault on him by thrusting a bamboo about five feot long down the pipe, and this time success rewarded my efforts, and the snake, driven from his refuge, was killed by the servants outside. This cobra measured about five feet six inches in length, and was the largest that I have ever seen killed. I may here meution that the ordinary ideas about the size attained by this species of snake are greatly exaggerated. Some years ago a surgeon-major serving in the Madras presidency, with whom I waa acquainted, took a great interest in this matter, and offered a considerable reward to anyone who would bring him a cobra six feet in length ; but, if my memory ?arves me right, the reward was never gained, although a very large number of cobras were produced for his inspection. Once I witnessed a wonderful escape from the almost invariably fatal effects of a cobra bite. I was marching with some native troops in the cold weather* and halted for the night at a place called Maikur, where, instead of having our tents pitched, my wife and I preferred occupying a small bungalow belonging to the Department of Public Works, which was situated opposite the encampment ground. Sittins outside the bungalow after dinner, I had occasion to call ray head servant to give him some orders for the next rooming. Aa tie ran up, I saw him. tick, something off his left foot, and at the same time he called out : " Samp, sahib, samp \ }> ("A snake, sir, a snake.") There was a bright good fire burning close by, and I paw by its light the snake with its hood up. It was immediately killed by some of the camp follower?, and was brought to me, and proved to be a email cobra On examining my servant's foot, I found one tiny puncture on the ankle, on which was a single drop of blood. The man was at once taken to tho hospital tent and attended to by the hospital assistant in medical charge of the troops, who applied amrnonicV and did all that was .in his power I was very anxious about the man, but he woke me at the hour for marching next morning as if nothing had happened, and for some time apparently experiencedno inconvenience. Some weeks later, however, after we had reached our destination, hia left leg swelled very much and he suffered great pain for a considerable time, but he eventually recovered. The suake was seen by eight or ten persons besides myself, and was beyond doubt a cobra, and the only possible explanation of the man's escape seems to be that the reptile must have bitten something else very shortly before, and so to a great extent exhausted the deadly poison in its fange. One of our children had a narrow escape, ikougk of a differeTvfc kind, wh^n emit© fb baby. Mv wife picked him up one day from tho floor, where ho was lying, enjoying himself in baby faehion. She had" hardly done so when a cobi'a fell from the* roof on the very spot on which the little one had been disporting himself the moment before, On one occasion a curious native super* stition with regard to the Bubject of theaenotea came to my notice. A cobra which had been killed in the hut of one of the m,en waa brought up to be shown to me, when a bavildar (native pergeant) called my attention to the fact that tho end of his tail \va9 blunb, saying in Hindostani : " Look, gah^b ; this is a downright villain ; he has bitten some man, so lost the tip of his tail." On my making further inquiries I was confidently assured that whenever a cobra bites a man the tip of his tail invariably becomes blunted