Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-03-14
Pigs and VenOmous Serpents.


| From the Oriental Sporting Magazine.
| In Ceylon, in 1856, l was returning
one morning from snipe shooting with a
tolerably fair bag of birds, when my at
| tention was arrested by dozen semi
wild pigs belonging to my friend, most
| perseveringly engaged in endeavoring
to turn over with their shouts the half
rotten stem of palmyra palm, and Gu
riosity to see if they WOULD succeed in
their endeavors-for l had never seen
pigs work SO unanimously in concert
before caused me to stop and watch
them. After two or three failures they
gained their point, turning the tree
halfway round, when whole family of
cobras, large and small, glided from
under it. After them the pigs scamper-
ed hilter-skelter, showing as much &C
tivity, although only half-wild, as a Ben
gal boar would do. A very large cobra,
fully five feet in length, was seized by
halfgrown sow within twelve feet of
me, and while she was cruncking up the
| horrible writhing bonne-bouche, which had
| been seized about the middle of the
body, distinctly saw the reptile bite
the SOW twice on the snout, without the
animal apparently caring the least about
it; the pleasure of consuming the lus-
cious titbit entirely compensated for
any annoyance or pain that the pig
might have felt at the time. | saw the
SOW mentioned some days afterward, not
the least affected by the bite of the
cobra.
| Another instance occurred on the
small island Pulobbin, situated in the
| oh IL &c
gapore and the mainland. l had gone
over to Pulobbin to endeavsr to shoot
man-eating tiger which was creating
great havoc amongst a few wretched
Chinese convicts stationed on the island
to split granite and ship it to Singapore
for building purposes. In this instance,
l had been out all the morning in an
unsuccessful search for the man-eater
and on my return, feeling rather done
up, stretched myself at full length in
the raised portico of the shooting hut
and was enjoying my pipe, when l no
ticed large black cobra slowly gliding
along the top of the bank within twenty
feet of me. In the side of the bank
were several holes having much the APP
pearance of the nests of our English
sand martin, and they had evidently at
some previous time been the nests of
either king-fshers or some of the fly-
catcher family. The cobra, having APP
preached the very brink of the cutting,
suspended his head and about two feet
of his body over it, and commenced
diligent search in these holes for rats,
birds, or any small prey which might be
| concealed within them. Suddenly
loud squeak from one of their occu-
pants showed that the unwelcome in
truder had been successful in its search;
and on the snake Withdrawing his head
from the abandoned birds nest, large
frog leaped vigorously out, but on
reaching the q ound seemed to be per-
fectly paralyzed with the venom Of the
bite, and in less than minute died.
The snake seemed to be fully aware
of the deadly effects of his own bite, as
it never attempted to follow its victim,
though it closely watched it from the
bank, its head being thrust about the
two inches over the bank, its eyes fixed
on the frog, whilst the forked tongue
was thrust in and out of its mouth,
showing the excitement of the reptile
at the contemplation of the food be-
fore it.
Little, however, did the reptile antic.
ipate what was in store for it; for whilst
gioating over his wretched victim, a fine
half-grown pig, belonging to one of the
Chinese ticketofleave men, saw him,
and rushed at him. The snake was
completely taken by surprise, its head
at the moment being about four inches
below the surface of the bank, thus pre-
venting him seeine the enemy apnroach.
ing from behind
The pig, without moments hesita-
ton, seized the snake near the tail, and
commenced chumping him up as saw
age would eat a string of maccaroni
: Again and again the reptile bit him,
with great violence, twice on the snout,
once on the ear, and once on the fore
) leg. The pig did not seem to care the
least about it, not stopping for one mo-
ment until it had devoured the hideous
reptile. 1t went off grunting its salts
: faction at the unexpected and luxurious
repast which fate had thrown in its way.
!, l saw the same pig some days afterward,
, and it certainly did not then eyince
signs of speedy dissolution. On another
occasion saw a pig giving chase to
a snake, which only made good its es-
cape by reaching the branches of a
small guava-tree.
An intimate friend of mine once in
formed me that he saw whole family
of fifteen cobras devoured by a couple
of pigs when he was taking off the root
. of bungalow at Mungledey, and al
though the pigs were bitten in at least
half dozen places it did not have the