The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-02-21
A DUEL WITH SNAKES.
gage In n BIood-Curd-
ling Scene.

On the morrow (Which was the third
diy) there was long delay; the pro-
logue was spun out and spun out. Each
of the masters was in very keen anxi-
city 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 small
cloth on the ground very gently and
called loudly TO Lave the first so. The
Lord of Devils" did not stand upon
Il e order OF his going; agreed on the
instant; and his two pupils turned up
large basket in the middle of the ring
and shook out of it about nine feet Of
tnat poisonous constructor, the great
hamadryad, or King Cobra. 1t is the
only snake in India that attacks of it.
self at all times. Its fierceness and
courage are only equaled by the bright
ness of its coloring and the strength
Of its coils. 1t can poison as mortally
aad strangle as surely as any snake in
the world. The Egyptian cerastes at
tacks 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
rcars its green length of active, two
fold, ferocious death in unparalleled
dreadfuness.
Anant Ram threw up his arms over
his head as the double horror rushed
Kissing at him; in breath its coils were
around him, its fangs tearing his arms.
He flung himself down a the pain; and,
put about by this sudden act, the snake
stopped biting moment to tighten its
cells. Then it reared a quarter of its
body above his head, and as quickly as
it could bend and strike bit him horri-
bly, in the neck under the left ear. On
the instant it jerked out its fangs with
a shrill whistle and fell'all slack about
him; he had bitten clear through its
with frenzed hands. He rose, bleeding.
dusty,wildeyed and ghastly; staggered
to the cloth that hid his snake and
yelled: Quick! to the trail! All three
of you! Quick."
The lord OF Devils" and his pupils
hustled round him; he whipped away
the cloth and barred to their eyes little,
crooked. gray-brown stick. They stared
at it, they stared at one another; and
slowly knowledge came to them. They
knew how Anant Ram had conquered
the hamadryad; that be had won the
devils to fight for him. They moved
around the little stick with out
stretched twitching hands, their start
ing eyes glued 10 it, striving to beat
down their dread, TO force themselves
TO touch it, to awake it to malignant
life. Slowly their dread mastered them;
tleir faces grew gray and then green;
one man gave back a step, then another;
ere by one they tore away their eyes
from the dormant horror; glared al one
another in the agony of utter fear;
turned with one accord and fed-fled as
men fee with 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 victorious panjab, sucking the
blood of the dead hamadryad for dear
lite, while his pupils, in fevered haste,
piled him with remedy 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
CT 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 nothing else; and to him alone
viii he reveal the mysteries of his craft.
Pail Mall Magazine.