The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-05-02
Pigs and yenomous Serpents.

We give below an extract from the
Oriental Sporting Magazine, in which the
writer states that he was on two occa-
sions witness to pigs being severely
bitten by cobras without being In the
slightest degree affected.
1.-THE first time 1 witnessed the act
was in Ceylon, in 1856. was return
ing one morning from snipe-shooting
with tolerably fair bag OF birds, when
my attention was arrested by a dozen
seni-wild pigs belonging to my friend,
most perseveringly engaged in endeav-
oring to turn over with their snouts the
half-rotten stem of palmyra palm, and
curiosity to see if they would succeed in
their endeavors-for had never seen
pigs work SO unanimously in concert be-
fore-caused me to stop and watch them.
After two or three failures, they gained
their point, turning the tree half way
round, when whole family of cobras,
large and small, glided from under it.
After them the pigs. scampered helter-
skelter, showing as much activity, al
though only half-wild, as Bengal boar
would do. A very large cobra, fully
five feet in length was seized by half
grown SOW within twelve feet of me,
and whilst she was crunching up the
| horrible writhing 6onne 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
luscious tidbit entirely compensated for
any annoyance or pain that the pig
might have felt at the time. I saw the
sow mentioned some days afterward,
not the least affected by the bite of the
| cobra.
"Thc second instance was on small
island, yclept Pulobbin, situated in the
narrow channel of the sea between Sing
apore and the mainland. I had gone
| over to Pulobbin to endeavor to shoot
man-eating tiger which was creating
great havoc amongst q few wretched
| Chinese convicts stationed on the island
to split granite and ship it to Singapore
for building purposes. In this instance,
| 1 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 a large black cobra slowly gliding
along the top of the bank within twenty
feet of me.
I'm the side of the bank were several
holes having much the appearance of
the nests of English sand-martins, and
they had evidently at some time
been the nests of either king-fshers or
some of the fycatcher family. The CO.
bra, having approached 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 occupants showed that the unwel-
come intruder had been successful in its
search and on the snake withdrawing
his head from the abandoned birds nest,
a large frog leaped vigorously out but
on reaching the ground seemed to be
perfectly paralyzed with the venom of
the bite, and in less than a minute
died.
"The snake seemed to be fully aware
of the deadly effects of its own bite, as it
never attempted to follow its victim,
though it closely watched it from the
bank, its head being thrust about two
inches over the bank, its eyes fixed on
the frog, whilst the forlled tongue was
thrust in and out of its mouth, showing
the state of excitement that the snake
was in at the feed before it.
| Little, however, did the reptile an
ticipate what was in store for it; whilst
gloating over his wretched victim, a
fine half-grown pig belonging to one of
the Chinese ticket-of-leave men saw him
and rushed at him. The snake was
completely taken by surprise, it's head
at the moment being about four inches
below the surface of the bank, thus pre-
venting him seeing tie enemy approach
ing from behind.
1.-The pig, without one moments hes
itation, seized the snake near the tail,
aud commenced chumping him up as a
savage would eat string of macaroni.
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 a 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.
1 saw the same pig some days afterward,
and it certainly did not then evince signs
of speedy dissolution. On another oc-
casion 1 saw pig giving chase to a
snake, which only made good its escape
by reaching the branches of small
guava tree.
"An intimate friend of mine once in
formed me that he saw whole family
of fifteen cobras devoured by couple OF
pigs when he was taking off the roof OF
abungalow at Mungledyke,and although
the pigs were bitten in more than half a
dozen places, it did not have the least
effect upon them.