Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-09-25
SNAKE-HANDLING.
Strange Experiences i'm India with Ply
thOns and Cobras.
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AprOpOs Of DR.. Standings interesting
snake anecdotes in your JOprHdi Nos. 1855
and 9G9), ! send you a note illustrative Of
the danger of handling certain kinds of
snakes. Out here. individuals of one sect
Of fakirs-religiOus mendicants-are fire.
quently met with wearing young and
tame pythOns as necklaces. One such
animal took the fancy Of an officer, and
for a 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 breakfast 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 in
stinctively cOiled round it. The leverage
thus obtained seemed to revive its memo
ries Of victim-squeezing, and in a moment
the officer was in the pangs of strangula-
ton. bound fast to his char and the awful
coil of the python around his neck. But
in that supreme moment Of horror ap-
palling he retained his nerve; with his
left hand he seized the reptiles head and
with his right grasped table-knife, and
was Just able to infiict a cash behind its
head, and then the sufiOcating coils fell
back. The officer was afterwards found
PROSTATE on the floor in dead faint
from which he only recovered to be seized
with brain fever, the delirium of which
was entirely occupied with encounters
with mOnstrOus serpents. In course of
time he recovered. but no one could re-
cognize in that pallid, gray-headed and
carewOrn shadow Of man the once stall
wart, hearty and enthusiastic sportsman.
Another note to illustrate the extreme
danger Of handling even dead snakes.
Major Dennys, police officer in the Cen,
trail Provinces, was recently out shooting
and killed a large cobra. His companion
asked to see 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
rightly Of death, cloaed on mis- finger.
Aware of his awful risk, he sucked his
finger and FASTENED home. But all as
sistance was unavailing; he died in three
hours.
| once kept and freely handled snake
declared 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, true enough, they
were so, and quit: rigid. COIled up in the
hutch was the missing snake which nv
boy and | had so frequently handled
The handling Of snakes is often una.
vOidably forced upon us by the extraOr-
binary and Oftentimes incompPehensible
positions in which snakea are frequently
snakes are essentially grOveling crea-
lures, forgetting that their ventral scales
give them admirable facilities for climb.
ing. Unless you recognize this fact, il is
difficult to understand how snakes get
into the roofs of up-cOuntFy 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 mac
cessible situations.
But when YOU meet snakes In the act of
ascending 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 a deadly snake
dropping out of the sleeve of your velvet
jacket, which your dydh 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 astonished
If a cobra looks in upon you from the dou-
bic 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 rencOntres, and
they show us how we must always be on
our guard against snakes. Yet it is mar
yel0us 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
attack