The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1891-04-17
veNoMnus REprllEs.


Tho AatonishinRlt iafeA Rate Of Mortal
lty froin s.ieenlinn Venom.
II the published figures are at all ac-
curaie, from twelve to twenty thon-
sand persona ole la British India from
snake bite, largely from that OF the cobra,
which is a serpent Of domestic habits That
tho reptile WAS not long ago exterminated
from all inhabited localities, says q writer
In the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, is
owing to the fact that Il is worshiped by
many Of the natives. Even to-day in Mala-
bar Hill, the most fashionable European
quarter Of Bombay, u short tune played on
q musical instrument rarely fails TO bring
cobra out Of some hole or crevice, for native
veneratlon is too much for English caution.
Tho natives are the chief sufferers from
this folly. Very few Englishmen have
been bitten, for they do not walk out bare
footed, and usually take cane to poke the
grass through which they walk. We be-
lieve only four Or Eve whites of promi-
nence have been bitten by poisonous
snakes in India since the opening
of the present century, and one Of
these was, nidshipman on YES
sci in the Bay of Bengal One of the dead
ly hydriad@, or water snakes, had been
fshed up, and the unfortunate youth
handled it without knowing that it was
venomous. Had the Hindoos exercised
common sense, there would now be few
eobras outsides Of the jungles. Martinique
and the neighboring islands of st. Lucia
each report q mortality from serpentine
venom rivalingt Of India, for each of these
islands is oyerrun with the fer de lance, 4
hercely aggressive viper, which has the
popularity Of giving birth to sixty little
snakes at once
African explorers have their troubles
with snakes, butthey award the palm of
danger not to them, nor to the lions or
leopards, but to the fierce wild buffalo bulls
During Prof. Diamonds recent Journey
to Lake Nyassa, two of his follow
ers were tossed by one of these savage
creatures, and it was almost miracle that
one OF the wounded men survived the in
Juries to his shoulders and ribs The puff
adder, an apparently sluggish creature, re-
sembling in build, though not in its
gorgeous colorsr the horrible black and
clumsy cottonmouthed moccasins of our
Southern swamps, has pleasant trick of
striking baclzw ard at any person who hap
pens to come near it The naia haze, q first
cousin of the Indian cobra, but more ag.
gressive and irritable, and the mamba,
which runs down its victims, are the princi-
pal remaining poisonous serpents of Africa.
Thereare green, black and fame-colored
mambas; the last mentioned being often
crested. The mambas sometimes reach q
lengthof twelve feet, and are known to have
chased horseman for miles. Their bite is
almost certain death.
A survey of the serpentine kingdom es-
tablishes the fact that the most poisonous
snakes are afraid of human beings. The
chief exception are the mamba,. the naia
haze and the great ophiophagus elaps, OF
hamadryad, of Burmah. This creature
which rivals the mamba in length, has an
expanding head like the cobra and naia
haze, but differs from both in some anatom
ical particulars and also in the Tact that il
is q cannibal, living principally on other
snakes. One of them chased a Burman in
the woods few years ago. The man ran
and thought to escape by swimming across
anarrow stream. To his horror, on reach
ing the farther bank he found that the snake
had crossed ahead of him. In his despair hi
tore of his turban and threw it at the rep
tile. The latter was obliging enough to g
for the white rag and waste his venom
upon it, the man meanwhile making his es
cape.
The mambas are principally found il
Natal, though they exist to some extent al
far north as Zanzibar, and may even have
spread as far as the desert. We have founC
no mention of their presence III Egypt or il
the SlnaItie Peninsula There is nothing il
their habits, however, which would exclud,
them from the Northern tropics and sub
tropics, for they flourish under similar eli
matte influences south ofthe line We no
tice that anitem is,on its travels to the eff
feet that the ''serpentsn which killed 81
many of the Israelites during their exodu,
from Egypt were guinea worms, scientific
ally known as the aracunculus. These fear
full creatures bury themselves in human
flesh, producing sores which often prov,
fatal. We doubt, however, whether the,
can be made-to fulfill the demands Of tn,
Scripture narrative. Weread in Numbers
xxi, that "the Lord sent fiery serpent
among the people and much people of Isra
ell died"
Geologyh has made us acquainted with OK
tinct reptiles with whom one'would not Xix
to meet, even were he clothed in coat o
mail and armed with repeating rife
From some Of these monsters the dragon
and griffins which figure in the folk lor
of all nations were undoubtedly depicted
They have happily gone, never to return, a
have most of the rattlesnal5es which former
ly infested our Oldest States. 70 this day
however, an occasional, RATHER is killed i
the Blue Hills of Milton, less than doze
miles from Boston, and the sea serpent, a
apparently solitary relic of the sauria
days, every now and then makes his al
pearance inlbhe ocean.
Recent travellers in, Alaska have hear
from the Indians, though their faith has nc
been strengthenedby sight, that herds Q
mastodon areyet feeding in the almost il
accessible interior pastures of our new pc!
y sessions. We hope the story may prove I
be true, and that paleozoic specimen ma
yet be on exhibition in our menageries. Gu
belief is not strong in that direction, how
aver though when one has aeen the ocff