The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-16
THE COBRA OF INDIA.
BANCROFT, THE MAGICIAN,
WRITES ABOUT EAST IN
DIAN REPTILES.
A Snake story without n Parallel.
Strange Indian Customs-A Deadly
Snake for a House Pet.

grand mOgul USED 10 reign supfemel ana
| other lesser places. I am not yet in the
proper district of the fakirs. To be sure.
they are more or less to be found all over
But I have learned, through the observa-
tons Of others. that these are not the
genuine fellows. They are merely imita-
tors-pretty bad ones as a rule.
The real fakirs are TO be found three
or four. or FIVE days journey from here
and IN the foothills OF the Himalayas.
where they form a sect Of their own. They
go through certain religious rites, but.
believe, mainly for the purpose Of i'm
pressing the gullible. and making their
mysteries more potent by giving them a
tinge of the supernatural
During my recent trip through the Pun
jab, 1 have been more interested in snakes
and snake stories than anything else.
find the snakes to far surpass any other
reptile or animal as a means Of diversion,
and 1 have certainly witnessed some
marvellous things accomplished by the
snake charmers.
Our snake charmers at home are not in
It with these. They are not even good i'm
itators. For l fancy that nine-tenths Of
| them never saw q genuine snake charmer.
| 1t is simply marvellous the power these
men seem TO possess over the reptiles.
| everywhere-in your garden, in your
| house, on your roof, crossing the roads as
| you drive, in the jungle, among the rocks
snakes, snakes, all over. One curious
! thing ! have noted which l never saw
| mentioned before and that is, while there
/ are all sorts OF snakes in India, from the
| little garden adder, whose bite Is deadly
| TO the black snake, the ribbon snake, the
| rattlesnake, in small numbers, the boa
and dozens of other varieties. the cobra
| seems to be the great popular snake Of
the country.
He is the most deadly by all odds, but
| appears to be the most Intelligent by far
For instance, all the snake charmers use
| cobras-never any other kind And ! am
| assured by people about whom there Is
no humbug whatever, that the particular
| cobras which these men charm have not
| been rendered fangless by any means. 1t
| is just as easy for them to give a deadly
| bite as the widest snake on the noun
! tain side. The charmers themselves, they
say, il they drew the fangs, there would
| be no further interest in the perform
| ance; that all that lends 1t excitement Is
the danger the performer is in.
And singular thing 1 have noted in all
! these exhibitions is that while they appear
/ to resent the presancetaf the cbarmer, and
| while they constantly appear to get in the
/ angriest moods, Kissing and darting forth
| their forked tongues, they never seem to
| bite this particular person who charms
/ them.
| The cobra is a peculiar reptile. Many
/ OF the common people keep one In the
! house. He is just as dangerous as any
| other, and has to be treated with the
| greatest respect. Should any sudden an
| noyance be given him-should, accident
| ally, some one tread on his tail-he will
/ turn and bite just as quickly as IL ne had
not been treated with the greatest kind
| ness.
You will see the native woman, early in
| the morning, come forth with a pan OF
/ milk, and put IL on the floor beside the
cobra. And the explanation given me was
/ that, where the cobra makes his home he
1 will permit no intruders The family
KNOWS that 1t has one among them; and,
| as this one is closely watched and its
habits are the same year in and year out.
| so long as it Is not interfered with, Il is
| comparatively harmless, though a stran-
ger might be attacked in a moment
| | had an illustration of this only few
| days ago. An Englishman, who came nm
/ on the train from Calcutta had a Sleep
| ing berth, and being, l suppose. very
droWsy and quite fun of ale or brandy
| ana soda, turned in before pulling the
| clothes down Cand it is, by the way. the
| universal habit here to search your bed
well before dropping into it,.
| IL happened that a cobra had preceded
| the Englishman. Disturbed in its rest il
! turned and bit him. When he arrived at
| Benares he was corpse. Nothing could
save him; thereby proving that a cobra 3
bite IS infinitely more effective than a
| rattlesnake's, the bite OF which is cura-
| pie Tor l have known a dozen instances
in my time-if taken in time. Down in
| pennsylvania C2ike county,, where there
/ used to be many rattlesnakes, / have seen
/ the bite cured by mud baths. Out west.
/ whisky often does it; but a man must
| drink at least gallon to make it effec-
| tive.
| Certain sections of India are more ir-
| fected by this deadly reptile than others.
| When l was at Cawnpore, an Englishman
| told me that he was going out that even
| ing 10 witness cobra hunt. l expressed
7 "a hat
| so risky an exercise. But he said there
| was no danger whatever. Neither he nor
l l should do the hunting.
On our way he told me that a village
! not far on had been devastated by rho
! visits OF large bands of cobras and that
/ the Inhabitants were in despair, as many
/ OF their children had been bitten and had
| died. And they had employed the ser.
| vices of a celebrated snake charmer. Du-
| leep Singh by name, and he was expected
| TO perhaps not exterminate the species
| IN the nelghborhood, but, at any rate, to
1 greatly diminish 1t.
The ride on horseback, for about an
hour from Cawnpore through what an,
| peared to be a well cultivated poppy sec
tIon-one OF the best opium lands in all
| H1ndoostan-brought US to the village
| All the people in the place, excepting the
! sick and the blind, were on the outskirts
| OF the little place, surrounding three men
/ some higher power. Every now and then
| these people would kneel to the earth md
/ strike it three times with their foreheads
/ while the man in the middle, accompanied
| by two assistants with tom-toms, uttered
/ the most piercing shrieks.
/ We sat on our horses watching these
| proceedings; after while the three men
| set off toward the jungle, the middle
| man who appeared to be the chief, playing
a shrill, small pipe, something after tho
| fashion of the tin pipes that we used to
/ use in our chidnoOd. Presently the
/ crowd followed them, and then returned
with evident signs of satisfaction. 1t was
/ believed implicitly by the population that
\ all this would put an end TO the snakes.
/ But 1t was some time, we learned, before
/ the result would be known. We therefore
dismounted, tied our horses up, and wan
/ dered through the village. We looked in
! to several of the houses, all OF them con-
| structed of bamboo, and almost open to
| any storm; and they looked neat and
| cleanly.
| The Indian countryman lives In the sim
| plist manner Rice is his main sustenance.
| on high days and holidays roast kid.
| sometimes a chicken, though these bring
| such high prices in the market the Indians
| themselves very seldom indulge In such
| luxury. There was a small inn IN NE
| place, frequented almost entirely by the
native populations; and there we sat,