Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-13

seats at the breakfast table. At the oper
door of our dining-room our Telugu school
teacher appeared, saying: ''Sir, bis
COBRA has been chasing a frog through the
whole length of your front veranda. H.
struck az it again soH again as it sprane
past the open door, your sitting-room
hut the frog, utter Sg piercing shrieks (as
fog 90 pursued by a serpent,
span, me quick enough to elude
is jtws sneld together they rushed off the
enaof. -Ethe veranda, and X frog sprans
urr Ter box that is stanGJg there. too
rAear down upon the hard fobr for the b 6
cobra to get under. and so escaped"
Well" sand |, where is the conra
now?' That is just what don't know. =
said he, for while I was looking tc see
what had become of the frog, how he had
got away, the cobra disappeared among
the flower pots, and | cannot see where he
has gone. He must have a hole there
| close by the veranda somewhere" said l.
''Will you please go and watch until |
come, and see if you can get sight of him
again, for he must be killed if he lives as
near the house as that
/ don't go a-shooting on Sunday. Int |
went for my pistol then, for | considered
1t decidedly a work of necessity and mercy
| to put an end to the danger of ourselves
or our people being bitten by that deadly
! cobra. Soon appearing with a revolver,
which kept for travelling through the
| Jungles by night, went to hunting for
the cobra hole.
Two large native flower pots stood abou
SIX feet from the veranda, with eac
a beautiful rose growing in it, of which
my wife was very fond, and beside which
she almost daily stood picking off dead
/ leaves, or watering and tending the roses.
! soon discovered a hole in the ground
about as large as my wrist, partly conceale~.
by the grass that was growing right be-
tween the two flower pots, which was far
enough apart for a person to stand
between them The hole went down per-
pendicularly. growing larger as it went
deeper. 1t took but a moment to bring a
hand mirror and throw the reflection of
the bright sun Il ght down into the hole
1t revealed horizontal chamber only a
foot or so deep, and the glisteuing scales
OF cobra coiled up at rest.
| Taking piece of broken wagon tire in
my left hand to stop up the hole with, and
placing the end of it slantingly in the hole,
| fired down into the hole Not a motion
was seen. | had missed. Turning the
tire up edgewise, | fired again What a
squirming there was! The cobra had been
wounded He struck out viciousIy at the
iron, which was turned down fiat as soon
as | had fired, to keep him from darting
out at US. | turned the iron edgewise and
fired again, and again. When | had I'M
loaded the sixth barrel let him strike his
head out, and caught it against the side
with the iron tire. | had brought out
with me a pair of large hedge-shears.
With these caught hold of his protrud-
ing neck, and with a stout pull with both
hands, pulled him out and gave him firt
out into the compound. What scatter
ing there was of men, women and child
rem! My attention had been so taken up
by the snake that had not noticed what a
crowd had gathered around. How they
screamed and ran! for they did not know
that the grip of the shears had dislocated
the fellows neck, and. seeing full-sized
cobra flying out toward them, they seemed
to think that he was springing at them.
| As | had grasped the head of the cobra
with the shears, had given the wagon
tire to the teacher, asking him to insert
the end again instantly that drew the
COBRA OUT Tor where one COBRA IS you VIII
usually find second. | came back and
threw the rays of the sun in again. Yes.
there were bright cobra's scales and an.
other cobra wriggling. Loading my pistoi
again repeated the firing, hoping that
he would strike his head out. so that
could eaten his head also. Squirm and
strike as he did, his head did not come
out of the hole until | had fired many
times; but it finally caDne, and | secured
him also. On drawing him out and ex-
aiming him closely, we found fourteen
pistol ball holes through his body, and still
there was fight in him. Any three Of the
wounds would have proved fatal in time;
but he died making a splendid fight. We
laid the cobras out on the veranda and
measured them. One of them measured
five feet eleven inches, and the other sly
feet two inches, than which one rarely find,
a cobra larger. Their hole showed that
they had evidently been living there right
along among the flower pots that were
tended daily and within six feet of our
veranda, and within twelve feet of my
study door, for weeks or months. Though
the col IA is one of the deadliest serpents
KNOWN and thousands of persons die of
their bite yearly in India, no one in our
mission has ever been harmed by one.