THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1952, 23 July 1891, Page 40

THE NATURALIST.

THE COBRA BI CAPELLO.

The Cobra df Oapella has numerous synonyms in different parts of India. It is sometimes called the spectacled or hooded snake. Some are marked with a figure like spectacles j others have a single occellus on the hood ; some bare no mark. The cobras are all hodded snakes — that is", the neck dilates into an oval disc, caused by the expansion of a certain number of elongated riba. The body and tail are relatively of moderate length, seldom together exceeding sft or 6ft, more frequently 3ft or 4ft. The head is short and not very distinctly separate from the neck ; the fangs are of moderate size and bnt slightly movable ; there are one or two small teeth behind them. . >■ The cobra is a nocturnal sn9fe — at least-It is most active in the night, thongh often seen moting about tn the day. They feed-on small animals, birds' eggs, ffogs, fish, even insects. They occasionally rob hen roosts and swallow the 'eggs whole, and prefer to«take their food at dusk, or during the night. They are said to drink much water, but it is certain that "they will live weeks, even months, in captivity without touching food or water. They gor'lnto water readily and swim well, but ' are essentially terrestrial snakes. They can climb, and occasionally ascend trees in search of food. Cobras are not infrequently found in the roofs of huts, holes in walls, old ruins, fowl-houses, and among stacks of wood, cellars, old brick kilns, old masonry of brick and stone, or mud among the grass or old jungle ; such are the common resorts, and during the rains or inundations ithey collect in such places of refuge, where they are frequently disturbed by men who, stepping on or qnintentionally disturbing them, mostly at night, receive their death-wound. The cobra is found all over Hindustan, up to a height of 8000 ft in the Himalayas and other mountain ranges. It is equally dreaded and fatal wherever met with ; fortunately, it is not- naturally aggressive, and seldom exercises its dangerous power unless provoked or in self-defence, at which times its aspect is most alarming. Baising the anterior third or more of its body, and expanding its hood, with a loud hissing it draws back its head prepared to strike, and, when it does so, darts its head forwards and either scratches, seizes, or imbeds its fangs in the object of attack. If the grasp be complete and the fangs of a vigorous and unexhausted snake be embedded in the flesh, the most dangerous and often fatal effects result ; but if the fangs only inflict a scratch, or if the snake be weak or exhausted, the same great danger is not incurred. When the bite ie inflicted by a vigorous enake it soon proves fatal ; if the . poison enter a large vein and thence be quickly carried into the circulation, death is very rapid—^indeed, almost immediate. Men have been known to perish from a cobra bite within half an hour. The largest and strongest as well as the^ smallest and weakest .creatures succumb. Fortunately, all who are bitten do not die. In the first place, some human beings as well as the lower animals have greater tolerance than others of this as of other poisons— a result, doubtless, of idiosyncrasy or varying degrees of nervous energy, which enables one to resist that to which another would succumb. Is it possible that a degree of tolerance might be acquired — as in the case of King Mitnridates, who fed on poisons till they nourished him— by which, perhaps, immunity might be gained ? m In the second place, a wound may have been inflicted and yet bnt little of the poison inoculated ; or, in the third place, the snake may be weak or sickly, and not secreting the most virulent form of poison ; or it may have been exhausted by recent biting, and thus have become temporarily deprived of the power of inflicting a deadly though still poisoned wound. But when a cobra in full possession of his powers bites, and injects the poison into man or beast, it is almost surely fatal, and all the remedies vaunted as infallible antidotes are f ntile. In bites that are less severe medical aid may be of service, and life may be preserved by simple measures ; but this is a very different matter from that of the so-called antidotes, all of which, after long, carefully-conducted, and

often-repeated experiments^ have been found utterly useless. Oobras are frequently exhibited by the socalled snake-charmers. Their graceful and imposing attitudes, with raised heads and distended necks, as they sway from side to side, watching the movements of their keeper, and frequently striking at him with their heads, and the ease, with which they are handled and made to perform, make them favourites with this class and with the people generally. Though generally when kept for j the purpose of exhibition they are deprived of their fangs (which is done by roughly cutting them out with a coarse knife), the snake-catchers handle them fearlessly when armed. These men know the habits of the creature thoroughly, and are so well acquainted with the extent to which they can move and strike that they take them up without fear, though with great caution, always grasping them tightly just below the head with one hand, and holding the tail with tha other. To obviate any risk or needless trouble, they deprive them of their fangs by breaking or cutting them off at the rootsj and thus rendering the snake temporarily harmless. They are aware that a new fang- is soon produced, and to prevent this they sometimes destroy and remove the capsule and reserve fangs, thus rendering the snake permanently harmless. Neglect of these precautions has often resulted in dangerous accidents. The sole secret of these men lies in then* dexterity andfeirlessness, engendered by habit. Their muntras, or .charms, their antidotes,. and the pipes or tubris with which they pretend to charm " never so wisely " are as devoid of real efficacy or power over the snake as are the snake-stones, roots, and other nostrums over its poison. They know as well that their dexterity in avoiding the snake's fangs is their real security against being bitten, as that, if they are bitten, the only way of escaping death is at once to prevent the entry of the poison into the circulation by placing a ligature tightly round the trurik above the bitten part, and the application of the knife, hot iron, or live coal to destroy it in the wound. The cobra is an object of veneration and superstitious awe to; the Hindoos, in whose mythology it takes a prominent place. In a religion that deprecates the wrath of a cruel and relentless power by propitiating the deity in whom that power is vested, it is natural that the type of evil, as represented in this reptile, should be regarded with peculiar deference. Many Hindoos object to destroy the cobra if they find it in houses, as sometimes happens; when one has taken up its abode in a hole in the wall, it is fed, protected, and conciliated, as to provoke or injure it were to invoke misfortune on the house and family. — Nineteenth Century.