The Indianapolis journal., 1899-01-15
A DUEL WITH SNAKES IN INDIA.
Rival Snake Charmers in a Blood
Curdling Scene.
Pail Mall Magazine.

Pail Mall Magazine.
On the morrow (Which was the third day)
there was a long delay; the prologue was
spun out and spun out. Each of the mas
ters was in very keen anxiety as to the
snake the other had been reserving for the
great effort. At last Souter came to the end
of his patience, and bade them peremptorily
play or pay. Thereupon Anant Ram set a
small cloth on the ground very gently, and
called loudly to have the first go. The
Lord of Devils did not stand upon the
order Of his going; agreed on the instant; :;
and his two pupils turned up a large basket
in the middle of the ring and shook out of
it about nine feet of that poisonous con-
strictor, the great hamadryad, of King Cob
ra. 1t is the only snake in India that at
tacks of itself at all times. Its fferceness
and courage are only equaled by the bright
ness of its coloring and the strength of its
coils. 1t can poison as mortally and strangle
as surely as any snake in the world. The
Egyptian cerasteS attacks and bites; the
fer-de-lance of st. Lucia drops from the
tree, vicious and fatal on the horseman.
But they are not constructors. The great
hamadryad rears it's green length of active,
two-fold. ferociouS death in unparalleled
dreadfulness
Anant Ram threw up his arms over his
head as the double horror rushed Kissing at
him; in breath it's coils were around him.,
it's fangs tearing his arms He flung him
self down at the pain; and put about by this
sudden act the snake stopped biting a mo-
ment to tighten it's coils. Then it reared a
quarter of its body above his head, and as
quickly as it could bend and strike bit him
horribly in the neck under the left ear. On
the instant it jerked out it's fangs with a
shrill whistle and fell all slack about him;
he had bitten clean through it's back, and
was tearing it's body asunder with frenzied
hands. He rose bleeding, dusty, wild-eyed
and ghastly; staggered to the cloth that hid
his snake, and yelled: quick! to the trial!
All three of youi QuickP
The Lord of Devils and his pupils hus-
tied round him; they whipped away the
cloth and barred to their eyes a little,
crooked, gray-brown stick. They stared at
it. they started at one another; and slowly
knowledge came to them. They knew how
Anant Ram had conquered the hamadryad:
that he had won the devils to fight for him.
They moved around the little stick with
outstretched, twitching hands, their start
ing eyes glued to it, striving to beat down
their dread. to force themselves to touch it,
to awake it to malignant life. Slowly their
dread mastered them; their faces grew gray
and then green; one man gave back a step,
then another; one by one they tore away
their eyes from the dormant horror: glared
at one another in the agony of utter fear;
turned with one accord and hed-fled as men
flee from the fear of death at their backs,
and the devils of the lone night and the
waste on their heels But Anant Ram lay,
needless of the screaming joy of the vic
toriCus Panjab, sucking the blood of the
dead hamadryad for dear life. while his
pupils, in feVered haste. piled him with rem
edy on remedy. In the confusion Souter
secured yet more material to make surer his
discoveries and to render this mystery of
the East a working medicine against the
terror of the serpent Anant Ram came out
of it alive, and rich, but he swears that in
winning his great fight he lost the secret of
ages. He breads Souter as he breads moth
ing else; and to him alone will he reveal the
mysteries of his craft