Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-03
sNAKR-HANpLING.

Apropos of DR.. Standings interesting
snake anecdotes in your journal tNos' 500
and 969), l send you note illustrative OF
the danger of handling certain KINDS OF
snakes. Out here, individuals OF one sect
of fakirs-religious mendicauts-are ire
auently met with wearing young and tame
pythons as necklaces. One such animal
took the fancy of an officer, and for lie"
rupees was transferred from the taklrs
neck to his and for some time they were
both on very good terms. One day our
friend sat down to breakfast with the py-
thon round his neck, thing he had never
before done the tail of the animal came
across the arm of the chair, and instinct
ively coiled around it. The leverage thus
obtained seemed to revive its memories OF
victim squeezing, and in moment the OIL
Ger was in the pangs OF strangulaIion,
bound fast to his chair and the awful coil
of the python around his neck. BUT IN
that supreme moment Of horror appalling
he retained his nerve with MS lett hanu
ne seized the reptiles head and WIN MS
right grasped a table knife, and was JUST
able to inhict cash behind It's nead, anu
then the suffocating coils tell back' Inc
officer was afterwards found PROSTATE on
the floor in a dead faint, from Wnlcn ne
only recovered to be seized with BRAIN
fever, the delirium of which was entirely
occupied with encounters with monstrous
serpents. In course of time ne recovered,
but no one could recognize IN thai palno,
gray.headed and care-worn shadow OF
man the once stalwart, hearty and enthusl'
astic sportsman.
Another note to illustrate the extreme
danger of handling even dead snakes. Ma
Tor Dennys, a police officer in the Central
Provinces, was recently out shooting and
killed large cobra. His companion asked
to see the poison fangs, and Major Dennys,
selzing the head with one hand, opened its
laws with the other to exhibit the fangs,
which, in the approaching rigidity Of death,
closed on his finger. Aware OF his awful
risk, he fastened home sucking his finger.
But all assistance was unavaliing He died
in three hours.
once kept and freely handled snake
declared to be innocuous 1t 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 dead. And true enough, they were
so, and quite rigid. Coiled up in the hutch
was the missing snake which my boy and
had 30 frequently hadled
The handling of snakes is often unavoid-
ably forced upon us by the extraordinary
and ofteutimes incomprehensible position
in which snakes are encountered. We are
apt to fancy that they are essentially grow
cling creatures, forgetting that their ven.
trail 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 white
washed walls and pillars how you meet
them on the upper shelves of your book
cases, or in other apparently inaccessible
situations.
But when you meet snakes in the act OF
ascending trees, and apparently with moth
ing to hold on by, you are resigned to your
fate, and are prepared for sanguine en-
counters anywhere and everywhere. If
you are lady you must not be surprised
as my wife was-at deadly snake drop
ping out of the sleeve of your velvet jacket,
which your ayah was helping you on with,
that Jacket having previously hung upon
wall-peg leaving it three or four feet from
the ground. Nor, if you are going out
calling, must you be astonished If 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
| might adduce illustrations by the score
of these strange RECRUITERS, and they show
US how we must always be on our guard
against snakes. Yet is marvellous that,
among Europeans, we very rarely hear of
deaths from snake bites, while the bare feet
and legs of natives leave them frequently
and fatally open to ttack.-[Chambers's
Journal