Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-06-06
SNAKE-HANDLING.
Strange Experiences in India with
PythOns ana Ccbras.

lA~ld'HItE' fiii-
Apropos of DR.. Str,dlinys interest
ing snake anecdotes in your Journal, I
send vol Ln.c illustrative of the danger
of handling certain Iii id of snakes. Out
here. individuals of ole sect of fakirs-
religious meudicants-are frequently
met with wearing young and tame
pvthons as necklaces. One such ant
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
dav our friend sat down to breakfast
with the python round his neck,
thing he had never done before: the
tail of the animal came across the arm
of the chair and instinctivcly
coiled round j.. The leverage
thus obtained seemed to revive its men,
cries of victim squeezing. and in mo-
ment the officer was in the pangs of
strangulation, boun fast to his chair
and the awful coil of the python around
his neck. But in tIat supreme moment
of horror appalling he retained his
nerve; with his left hand he seized the
reptiles head and with his right grasp
q table knife and was Just able to intiict
a cash behind its head, and then the
sutfocating coils fell slack. The officer
was afterward found PROSTATE on tho
floor in dead faint, from which he only
recovered to be seized with brain fever,
the delirirm of which was entirely occu-
pied with encounters with monstrous
serpents In course of time he recov-
cred, but no one could recognize in that
paliid, grayhaired and careworn shadow
of man the once stalwart, hearty, and
enthusiastic sportsman.
Another note to illustrate the extreme
danger of handling even dead snakes.
Maj. Dennys, police officer in the
central provinces, was recently out
shooting and killed q large cobra. His
companion asked to see its poison
fangs, and Maj. 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
unavailing; he died in three hours.
once kept and freely handled q
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;
true enough, they were so, and quite
rigid. Co:led up in the hutch was the
missing snake which my boy and l had
so frequently handled
The andling of snakes is often I'M
avoidably forced upon us by the extra
ordinary and oftentimes incomprehensi-
BILE positions in which snakes are FREE
quently encountered. We are apt to
fancy that snakes are essentially
groveling creatures, forgetting that
their ventral scales give them admirable
facilities for climbing. Unless you
recognize this fact. it is difficult to un-
derstand how Stakes get into the roofs
of up-country bungalows, which are
supported by smooth and whitewashcd
walls and pillars; how you meet them
on the upper shelves of your bookcases,
or in other apparently inacce ,sible sit
uations.
But when you meet snakes in the act
of ascending trees, and apparently With
uOoh'hS w hoAu VIZ ~ sOu "AS
to your fate, and are prepared for san
guine encounters anywhere and every
where. If You are lady you must not
be surpr.sed-as my wife was-at a
deadly snake dropping out Of the sleeve
of your velvet jacket, which your avah
was helping you on with, that jacket
having previously hung from a wall
peg, leaving it three or four feet from the
ground. Nor, if you are going ont call
ing, must you be astonished if cobra
looks in upon You from the double roof
of your brolgham. 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
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.