Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-09-15

Strange Experiences In India with
PythOns and CObras.
From Chambers Journal.

From Chambers journal.
Apropos Of DR.. Standings interesting snake
anecdotes in your Journal (Nos. 966 and $500.
send you a note illustrative of the danger of
handling certain kinds Of snakes. Out here in
dividuals of one sect of fakirs-religious mendi-
cants-are freqently met with wearing young
and tame pythons as necklaces. One such ami
NAL took the fancy of an officer and for few
rupees was transferred from the fakir's neck to
his; and for some time both were on very good
terms One day our friend sat down to break
fast with the python round his neck, a
thing he had never before done; the
tail of the animal came across the arm
of the chair and instinctvely coed 70 und it.
The leverage thus obtained seemed to revive
Its memories of victim-squeeZng, and in mo-
ment the officer was in the pangs of straDgula-
ton, bound fast to his chair and the awful coil
of the python around his neck. But in that
supreme moment OF horror appalling he re-
tanned his nerve with his left hand he seized
the reptiles head and with his right grasped
table-knife. and was Just able to infiict cash
behind its head. and then the sufocating coils
fell back. The officer was afterwards found
PROSTATE on the floor in a dead faint, from
which he only recovered to be seized with brain
fever, the delirium Of which was entirely Occu-
pied with encounters with monstrOus serpents
In course or time he recovered, but no one
could recognize in that paIlid. gray headed and
carewOrn shadow of man the once stalwart
hearty and enthusiastic sportsman.
Another note to illustrate the extreme danger
of handling even dead snakes Major Dennys
police officer in the Central Provinces, was
recently out shooting and killed large COBRA
His companion asked to sec its poison fangs
and Major Dennys. Selling the head with one
hand opened its jaws with the other to exhibit
the fangs which. in the approaching rigidity of
death, closed on his finger. Aware of his awful
risk. he sucked his finger and fastened home
But all assistance was unayailing; he died in
three hours.
/ once kept and freely handled snake de-
clared to be innocuous; it escaped, and after
much searching could not be found. Presently
my boy ran up with tears in his eyes, declaring
that his three pet rabbits were all Dead and
Coiled up in the hutch was the missing snake
which my boy and had so frequently handled
The handling of snakes is often unavodably
forced upon US by the extraordinary and often
times incOmprehensible positions in which
snakes are frequently encountered. We are apt
to fancy that snakes are essentially groveing
creatures, forgetting that their ventral scales
give them admirable facilities for climbing
Unless you recognize this fact it is difficult to
understand how snakes get into the roofs of up
country bungalows which are supported by
smooth and whitewashed walls and pillars; how
you meet them on the upper shelves of your
bookcases. or in other apparently inaccessible
situations.
But when you meet snakes in the act of as
cendng trees, and apparently with nothing to
hold on by. you are resigned to your fate, and
are prepared for sanguine encounters anywhere
and everywhere. If you are lady you must not
be surprised-as my wife was-at deadly snake
dropping out of the sleeve of your velvet jacket
which your ayah was helping you on with, that
Jacket having previously hung from wall peg
leaving it three or four feet from the ground
Nor. if you are going out calling, must you be
astonshed if a cobra looks in upon you from the
double roof OF your brOugham How did the
one snake ascend the smooth wall and get into
the jacket? How did the other pass up the
smooth and glass-like sides or wheels of the
brougham and get into its double roof?
l mig1t adduce illustrations by the score of
these strange rencontres, and they show us how
we must always be on our guard against snakes
Yet it is marvellous that. among Europeans, we
very rarely hear of deaths from snake-bite
while the bare feet and legs of natives leave
them frequently and fatally open to attack