The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-05 00:00:00

A NATIVE SNAKE SHOW.
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The Special Correspondeti of the Dairy Sir
from Calcutt a on Jail. 1, Bends to that jou,—

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interesting letter :
To leave Calcutta Clhout seeing the snakes at the
General Hospital would have been an omission of
which, at any rate, the Prince could not be guilty.
Dr. l'ayrer haff aCcordingly the lorionie in 'Coutpa4l
with Dr. Ward, of exhibiting to his Royal Higlimesp,
the powers of poisonous Serpents and the bleteerness of
native snake-keepers. Unable to be preseat at•thikeessr
tertainment, 1 was invited to a private view of the
cellection on the following morning. Bear in mind that
no snake-charmer was present, that neither pipe nor
whistle was used, that every snake had its poison fangs,
or teeth in capital order' and that no means save
thti• marvellous skill of the native operators was
employed in the exhibition which followed, and you
will have a good idea of the peril through which
those Hindoos passed. It was early in morning—not,
however, before the snakes, which were in a series of
wire-covered boxes, were awake and lively—that we
were shown into a stone-floored room some twenty
feet long and twelve broad. IA theizoxes_were the
-slroiies aid -dealest snakes in India; pythons,
ophiophagi, cobras, korites, Russell snakes, and many
others. The Hindoos who had charge of them were
two ;line wiry little il4 silt& to the waist, as most-
of their countrymen are. They wore neither gloves
nor any other protection and had no instrument of
any kind in the place. After showing the varied
collection under their care they proceeded to -
open the python cage, and one of them, putting
his hand in,• seized a monster serpent and threw
him upon the floor close to our feet, The python.
objected to such treatment, and Vegan to hisse
making at the same time a vigorous effort to rise.
But the snake keeper was waiting for this, and no
sooner did that huge shining back begin to curve than
the keeper put out his hand, and, seizing the creature's
tail, pulled it back with a jerk: Instantly the python
was powerless—hissing, but -unable to move; the more
he struggled the more tenaciously did the keeper hold
his tail, explaining meanwhile that so ling as the
reptile was controlled in that fashion there was no
danger of its doing mischief; then, just as its rage was
becoming ungovernable, the man lifted it quickly, and
with a jerk deposited it in the box. Its companion
was now taken out in a similar manner, and slapped
-
and buffeted ti;l throughout its entire lengtth, some
twelve feet, it quiveted with pAssion but all'to no
purpose; it, too, was presently replaced in the cage,
and shut up to hiss at its leisure.
The fact that an ophiophagus is in the Regent's
. Park Zoological Gardena rendered the next exhibition
more interesting, although it may be doubted whether
the sudden throwing into so small a room of a snake
7ft long was agreeable to the visitors. llowees
wae really no danger, for the venomous ereaL
so completely in its keeper's power that we had no
occasion for fear. One bite from the leptile, and any
one of us would have ben dead in five minutes, for it
was exceptionally strong and lively; but it was no
more able to bite us than the little mongoose caged
outside the door. Up rose its head, out came its
slithering tongue, its huge throat swelled, and all
seemed ready for a desperate attack, when the. keeper
struck the reptile's mouth with the back of his hand,
and before it could strike hi_tn s• • • it just under
the head. Then it struggle4Aut'on a • get away—it
had met that native before; and did • . at all approve
of his treatment. The other native now seized its centre
and tail‘ And, About more adytiMpeOliblt-proattire
was heisted Into the air as harmides'ffs le-utter-fly, and
its fangs exposed by the aid of a small piece of wire.
Those teeth were li*ridly full. of poison—enough to
have killed a dozen rsons. At length, our curiosity
satisfied, this monster was put into his cage, and his
brother plucked out by the naked native, with the
hand, so, X)Rown on the floor. He, too, was
truculent for a minute, endeavouring to follow the un-
pantalooned Hindoo round the room; but he had.
reckoned withent his host, or rather his Iteeporifor he
was seized presently by the tail and hoistled upleast as
the other had been. In vain he hissed and spat, His
tongue might move in and out as often as it pleased,
but all to no purpose; whether on the floor or
in the air its. efforts- to bite were perfectly un-
availing, and when the cage was open it slunk in, a
disconcerted serpent. A cobra was the next to he
turned out, a strong, healthy snake, neaZi- efeir
feet in length, with a hood the power of moving
which somewhat startled us. But move as
the agile native was too quick for -it.
He would put his knee within a foot .of it as it stood-
up ready to strike, and it would make a dart, as futile,.
however, as it was sudden. Then it would hiss aa
though hoping to frighten its adversary; it might as
well have hissed at the wall. And, just when it had
got up again, and was so enraged that it could scarcely
wait for a good Opportunity to strike at the native's
knee, which was moving before it in a most tantalising
manner, the keeper's hand was quietly placed under
its head, and it was removed like its. predecessors.
"Will it bite ?" I asked. " See," said the native.
Taking up a piece of bamboo stretched across
a shell, be held the wood to the serpent's
mouth. Instantly the reptile seized the prof-.
feted bait, its eyes glistening its neck dis-
-tended, and crunched the wood as though it
was tinder. Two or three moments elapsed as the,.
teeth penetrated farther into the fibre, and then we
saw the poison falling in white drops into the shell,
which acted as a kind of saucer. I was particular in
noticing two points in regard to this incident: first,
that"the poison did not come from the fangs imme-
diately the bite was inflicted—a fact that will account
for the mongoose living sometimes after he is bitten by
the cobra ;. and, next, that the qbantity of Venom
emitted was much greater than is generally supposed.
There were five or six large white drops in the shell,
and probably one Or two absorbed in the bamboo.
When forced to surrender the wood the serpent seemed
by no means exhausted; the fibre was much torn,-
for the keth.hati-2mAkrated nearly a quarter of an-
For all that, I should mention that when presently*
another cobra equally large was examined, it was
' shown that the teeth were set back some distance in
the head, and that they were by no means so large as
those of a viper which was shown afterwards, and
which was so quick in its movements that it had to
lifted out ofso • • by irat.nsfet a Tooki sti
Cobras apd hi. i
• i TaAt W. seized w h
hand, btft no so •is huge viper, which made such
desperate attempts to strike one or two of us that-we
were by no means sorry when the keeper seized him
,by the n_c_oKaind t opeake. Amouthi ,His
fang•WeNuMdbuSteair &Ile—Luger • an the cobra's
,by one half, and very strong. 4'li " Must' have
! contained a great quantity of venom. However,
he was not - invited to try
.tiant edit* the Itithe
, he 'got back into his box was, I think, heartily
tired of the exhibition. A "Russell" snake, with a
golden spotted back, was the next on the floor, and it
hissed violently, but was taken up just as easily as the
others after it had been provoked to a grext-rage-for-
several minutes. A korite, proverbially deadly, had
been played so many tricks before that it was slow to
take part in the fun. Once or twice it struck viciously
at the keeper, but without any effect, and at last
ceased to make any effort to bite the Hindoo. Therel
was no need to play a pipe or tom-tom to awe that
snake. It was only too glad to get away into his
blanket and box again. The exhibition was ended by
the showing of a biscobra,,,or small guava. What cared
we for a wretched snake-charmer who; with a few
serpents whose fangs had been .abstracted, a lot of
.pipers and charmieag
.sticks, and all kinds of protee-
'tions, waited outside; and offered to give us an enter-
tainment? After such an exhibition as we
had witnessed the cleverest snake charmer was the
emerest impester. Passing across the grounds, a
valtuibltplece of information was given us. Chained
to a wall was a pariah dog, with a Revere wound on
one of its legs. This animal, we were informed, had
been experimented' neon 'by Dr. Wall with wonderful
success a large quantity of cobra poison heel been
injected under Its skiie, and yet it had been renovereel
by an antidote which Dr. Wall' beid to Irwin. dis- .
covered. More, may probably he heard of this. In
the hospital visitors= book was a note'in the. Writing of
the Prince : "1 'am very much isleo.sed withi. the
hospital, which I find in good order, and well yen-
tilated. Albert Edward, Jan. I"—the signature of
the Duke of Sutherland being also aPpended. Alittle
lower down was aeimilar certlfica.tsefroni Dr. Purer.
The hospital certainly deservestlatthie'heet encomiums
t leteassee 'wee.
CTJRIOTIS STORY OF, Blip LIFE.
I
•A few weeks ago it was reported in Melbourne that
,
a number of German land selectors were dying from
starvation at a place called Major Plaine, in the
Be.echworth District
and an inquiry into the matter
diseloAed a strange phase of life in the bush (says the
Liverpool Albion). About fifty men, 'womqi
children, who less than a year agoltad'left the village
oft Hainan, in Silesia, were found settled bn the
Cocked Hat Creek .in two 'encantraents, :Working
together on communistic principles ruled by and
maintaining a prophetess, who had 'led them intO
the new land. The children and young people looked
strong and well on their diet of damper and vege-
tables, and nobody had been starved,. bit there
was a want of nourishing food, and four of the
party were ill, one apparently dying from scurvy.
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