The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-23

cred from his own impetus. which is in
@pout second or so wriggles his head
elther TO the right or 10 the left This act
o. turning helps 10 squeeze the poison
gland situated on that side to which the
COBRA has turned, and thus TO inject The
poison over the puncture on that side. (Of
course, If the cobra has time to turn both
ways then the poison Is deposited on both
Wounds-and the condition Of the victim
is douby desperately After this discharge
the COBRA usually drops off the limb In an
inert mass as If considerably though tenn
porarlly, weakened by the loss of the
precious fluid. There may, of course. be
sufiiclent secretion stiH left In the bag to
give a second bite Immediately after. bur
IN that case the wound may not neces-
sarily be fatal. 1t usually takes few
hours, sometimes days. to accumulate ths
run supply again. There was however
one case within the writer's knowledge
where three small children were success
slVely bitten by a large cobra, and all
three died In consequence.
But to resume. It will, therefore. be an
parent that % the fangs are employed
merely to cause the wound or wounds-i
e. to open up communication with the
blood of the victim; and % the poison de-
posted on the wound mixes with the blood
and eventually causes death later on
Hence II will be noted that IL the poison
is not able 10 enter the wound there is no
danger. In other words, If the cobra bites
a person, not on the naked skin, but
through fairly substantial garment. the
fangs Will go through right enough. but
the poison win be deposited on the gar
ment and not on the wound In such a
case, II the person bitten were to remove
the garment. at least from the Immediate
neighborhood of the wound, before the
poison has had time 10 soak through IL,
he is in no danger whatever.
On the other hand II there Is already e
wound or sore on the body. then even a
blow from a fangless cobra will be fatal.
Snake charmers are well aware of this
fact, and are particularly careful on such
occasions as the following: band of
these men were exhibiting before the
writer, when, after a few odd feats. they
proceeded to show graphically how a co.
bra strikes It's prey. They produced mag
nifcent specimen, fully five feet IN length.
and as thick as ones wrist-though. of
course, fangless. One Of the men struck
up a monotonous tune on a wind instru-
ment, something like Highland bagpipe.
The cobra Immediately reared its head
fully two feet from the ground and began
swaying It's body gracefully in time with
the music in evident pleasure. Then one
of the other men took off his tunlc and
stood naked to the waist His barred back
was carefully examined to see that there
was not 50 much as scratch on It. He
lSnet down about two feet in front of the
cobra and waited.
Suddenly, at a given signal, the music
stopped. In fierce anger the cobra launch
ed forth at the kneeng figure as being
the nearest-but, almost simultaneously
with the stoppage of the music, the man
dropped his head on his knees and received
the blow on his barred back The cobra
paused just one second after striking. and
then turned on It's head and fell off. There
was huge drop Of poison on the back of
the performerl He wiped it off carefully
with piece OF cloth, and proceeded with
the rest of the performance.