The evening times., 1900-07-28

Days. AT the end OF that time the dried
venom "a 1aky yellow POWDER was screped
on the glass with a steriliZed knife the
powder was Theoretically sealed up in
small glass tubes. the tubes labeled show
ing the species of snake and date on which
the venom was extracted. and the whole
supply forwarded weekly 10 Prof. Calmette.
In this condition the desiccated venom
maintains its virulence for months
StunE by N Viper's FanEs.
1t must not be supposed that even in
the dexterous hands OF man like Kullan
the manipulating Of snakes and collecting
OF venom were unattended by considera-
BILE danger. The man nearly lost his life
on two occasions during the above opera
tiOns On the first occasion was present
when the cunning OF his hand was out
done by the agility Of a particularly fero-
eious echis. / shall never forget my hor-
ror when realized that the man had been
outwitted and had been fairly bitten on
the tip Of his finger, nor can 1 express my
admiration OF the calm fortitude that he
showed on that occasion. Whether IL be
that he really had no fear or whether he
was ashamed TO show it | know not. II
happened thus: He had paced large ac-
tive and very aggressive viper on the pol
ished floor and was proceeding TO pinion
IL in the usual way. The snake seemed tn
comprehend his tactics. and for a consider
able time Kullan's efforts were fOiied- The
little creature made many futile attempts
to attack its aggressOr by springing for
ward at Kullan's naked feet, but owing TO
the slippery focr IL was unable 20 make
good its attack. At length. after repeated
failures, the man succeeded in pinning the
viper's head 10 the f0or. and his left hand
seized the neck The moment he did this
the snake cOiled itself vigorously around
his hand. and before the assistant could
get a grip Of the tail IL had slipped through
Kulian's fingers and in doing so drove one
fang fortunately there WAS only one fang
priek) into the heshy part OF the mans
middle finger. just below the nail. In a sec
ond he dashed the reptile TO the ground
and was sucking with all his might al the
bitten finger The doctor in another in
stant had placed ligature around tie base
Of the finger and another just above the
elbow.
The doctor then pulled out scalpel and
was about 10 amputate the last bone Of
the finger. but KuIlan would have none
OF it
He smiled placidly and said DO not
frighten yourself sahlb I shall be all
right. There's no necessity TO prevent my
earning my living b. cutting of my finger
have been bitten many times before and
am still alive, and I'm not going 10 die
this time either. Just take that knife
and cut my finger open. deeply. right down
TO the bone over the spot where the fang
entered and he held out his finger TO the
doctor. who promptly did as he was bid,
while Kullan stOo5 there and scarcely
WINGED at the operation.
Now. sahib, kindly tell them 10 bring
me a ieech. said Kullan all the time
sucking hard al his finger
In few minutes leech was made to
fasten firmly on the bottom Of the wound.
Enough" CALCULATED Kullan. Now
viii ask but one more favor. sahib. and
that is to excuse your slave doing any more
work with the snakes today. I will return
next Wednesday, as usual, with plenty
more snakes
On the following Wednesday KulIan. true
10 his boasting promise. turned up as usual
with his two assistants, and though his
bag was not as large as usual. he had
brought with him enough snakes to kill a
whole regiment His hand was in a sling:
he had removed the ligatures and the arm
was much swollen, but he was otherwi.e
well, and only complained Of feeling rather
weak He said that three or four hours
after the bite he felt very i'll ard thought
he was going TO die. His friend sent for a
fakir "a holy mani. who fumigated him
with a strong incense of sorts and re-
peated incantations, and in short time
he began TO feel better. The next day he
was out catching snakes again
Frequently Bitten.
On another occasion. about a month lat
er. Kullan. having extracted the venom
from large number Of vipers at the la
boratory. took the creatures to the district
magistrate to receive the usual head mon
ey- The custom was for him to decapitate
all the snakes he brought and then 10 count
the heads in the presence OF an official The
heads were all lying about and Kullau
was placing them in little heaps according
to the different species. While he was do
ing this one of the heads (Which retain
mobility for some time after being severed
from the trunk fastened its two fangs into
the loose skin OF Kullan's hand between
the thumb and index finger. The official
present Immediately placed a Iigature on
the arm above the bite. and with a pocket
knife freely incised the skin over the
punctures- What Kullan did after this I
know not but he was apparently little the
worse for the bite, and turned up the fol-
lowing week with good supply Of snakes.
Tt is possible. of course. that the decap1-
tated viper on this occasion was not very
virulent, for it had had all its venom. ex-
tracted the day previous. and even II more
venom had meantime been secreted. il IS A
question how far deeapitated head OF a
snake would be capable Of injecting venom
through its poison fangs. 1t is more than
probable also that the man Kullan. who
had survived the bites of so many snakes
had by this time become more or less i'm
muniZed, like Prof. CalmetJe's horses-The
Cornhill Magazine
The Aerial Ninr-Cha.,na,I-op D..