The evening times., 1900-07-28

4
The country around Delhi, with its hot
and humid climate. its rocky ridges and
numerous ruins. (relics of bygone glory
is as well fitted perhaps as any in India
for the habitat OF ophidia of all kinds. To
those who know when. where, and how to
| catch them, like the remarkable man OF
whose daring exploits with poisonous
snakes am about to give some description,
| quite an easy and honest livelihood is to be
made. and it is not surprising that Delhi
should have become the home Of many q
! professional snake catcher
With a view to procuring snake venom
for Prof. Calmette. Major Dennys en-
ployed. at a monthly wage OF e1, the mas
ter snake catcher OF the district, a low
I bred Mahometan OF the name of KulIan.
For this small pay Kullan undertook -
supply the doctor with about one hundred
| living venomous snakes weekly, and to ex-
] tract their venom from them.
Kullan was a powerfully built little man
| aged about thirty five years His name
was well known in the neighborhood for
! his skill and daring in me profession OF
/ his adoption. 1t was generally supposed
that he possessed some kind Of magic pow
ers over the reptiles that he handled daily
4 and from the capture OF which he earned
\ his precarious HvelihoO<.
| room was specially fitted up at the
! hospital for the purpose OF these expert
ments. The floor was OF polished Portland
cement. This was considered an essential
as the polished surface on which the
snakes wee placed rendered them extraor-
dinarily helpless. and enabled the snake
] catcher TO handle some OF them in a man
ner that he would not have dared to do
| otherwise. Snakes are scarcely able to
/ make any progress on polished surface
/ On the particular day when l was first
/ introduced to Kullan and his methods the
/ doctor ordered the three snake catchers to
bring their crawling burdens into the labO-
/ rstory. hullan headed the procession,
! carrying over his shoulder an ordinary can
vas sack, which was literally heaving and
sway!ng about with the movements OF
some sixty or eighty vipers which were
confined therein. The two other men
! carried several small "gharas." or earthen
/ pots. their mouths being closed by pieces
/ Of rag tied over them. These "gharas"
/ each contained two, three and sometimes
as many as four snakes, either cObras or
| keraits.
| 1t seemed almost incredible that the
/ three men who now sa; in the laboratory
/ surrounded by about a hundred yenomous
snakes haG really been able to catch them
all alive during the last week, as they
I stoutly alleged they had done.
Major Dennys was anxious 10 satisfy
/ himself on this point. and said If the
| process OF catching wild snakes is such an
| easy matter. Kullan. would you be willing
| 10 take me or one Of these sahibs with
you some morning and show US how you
do it?''
| Kullan hesitated FOR a moment.
| Your Honor thinks We breed these
snakes? Sahibs have often s-3Tged me
| with that before: but Your Uono. IS vel
come 10 come 10 our home and search the
place. and. If he finds any 81 yns Of what
| he suspects. put Us into prison. sahib
This humble one assures Your Horror that
snakes cannot be bred in captivity In
years gone by this slave kept d number
OF cobras and other snakes with a hope
Of being able to breed them. but IL was a
failure. They are too timid and he has
/ never succeeded in breeding them in cap
tivity. Your slave admits that he has
J sometimes taken cobras' eggs and kent
] them till they hatehed. He has also kept
| IN captivity a female viper who appeared
! heavy with young. After a time she pre-
! sented your slave with eleven young ones
/ instead OF one But this is quite a diff
ferent thing from breeding snakes sahib 8"
| But, said the doctor, in a conciIiatory
I tone, Il have no wish to prevent your earn
ing your living by catching snakes II you
do not breed them, and are able to catch
! them as you assert. you have a perfect
right to the rewards you receive, and 1
will help you by making II known to dis
! trict officers that there is no doubt that
/ E-Nff do not H. n.
me satisfy myself first that you catch them
as you say you do
| Very well. sahib," said Kullan. "if you
! are prepared to come with this humble one
! some morning he viii show Your Honor
I how he catches snak -
short time after this KuIlan demon
strated in the most unmistakabIe manner
4 his marvellous power of finding snakes in
| their natural homes. Major Dennys told
I Kullan to meet him on a given morning at
| the hospital and accompany him 10 a spot
/ previously unknown to the snake man. The
doctor then took him to the Delhi Jail gar
/ den and set him to work to try to find
| venomouS snakes.
Starting on Hunt
| Kullan smiled grin Of satisfaction when
| he realized what was before him. He ad-
mitted before he commenced his work that
he had poached this very garden for snakes
1 some years before. and that he had made
/ great bag; but he had been caught tres
( passing by a Jail warder and chastised
| hence he had not been there again
The man then set to work, followed by
/ a little knot of spectators. consisting OF fail
/ officials only. He first approached an or
/ chard Of lime bushes armed. as he always
was. with small stick. two feet long. with
an iron hook at the end 1t must be un-
! derstood that up to the last moment Kul-
/ Ian had no idea whittier the doctor was 60
| Ing TO take him.
| After a few minutes of searching he
called out: Look here, sahib.n and he
pointed out small viper (Echis carinata)
coiled round the twig of a lime bush
| apparently fast asleep, for it was quite
\ motionless. He told the spectators to
! stand well aside. and then with a dexter
Gus and lightning-like movement he plant
! ed the hook between the snake and the
J twig on which il was coiled and jerked
/ the reptile to the ground. The vicious
| little viper, about foot in length, imme-
diately coiled itself into little knot and
began slowly rubbing its coils against each
/ other, producing thereby kissing noise
not unlike the hiss of an angry cobra
kuilan's method of securing these rep
/ tiles after he nd brought them to bay On
the ground is peculiar. and quite different
| from the way in which he deals with other
| snakes. The Echis carinata is a small
| viper, seldom more than eighteen inches
/ in length, and is the most deadly. agyres
4 N-fN lV,A fear1