New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-07-22

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handle them with impunity. He is now a most
formidable beast to approach striking out deS-
perately at every moving thing within and even
out of his reach. But even in this condition
Kullan had no difficulty in Selling the largest OF
cobras. He would hold up and shake rag IN
his left hand. On this the Infatuated reptile
would rYet its gaze. With his right hand, from
behind, the would then suddenly seize II
round the neck, about three inches below the
head. and assistant would fasten firmly onto
its tail to prevent it winding round kullan 8
arm. His right hand would then slide forward
till he had fastened his fingers round the neck,
just behind the jaw. He would then insert the
rim Of a watch glass between the Jaws, the grip
on the neck would be slightly relaxed. and the
serpent would yiciously close its jaws on the
watch glass, and in doing so squirt the whole OF
its venom through the tiny holes of its fanSs
into the cOncaVity of the glass.
In this manner snake after snake was made
to part with its venom into a watch glass. Often
between sixty and a hundred snakes were so
dealt with in the course of a morning.
The watch glasses were then placed small
glass stands in plate swimming with melted
beesWaX. Large glass bell jars We're then heated
so as TO drive out most of the AR IN them, ana
these were inverted over the plate on to the
wax. The entire plate then placed on a
shelf and the venom allowed to dry in vacuo
for seven days At the end of that time the
dried venom Ga laky yellow POWDER was
sCraped off the glass with steriliZed knife, the
powder was Theoretically sealed up in small
glass tubes, the tubes labelled showing the
species of snake and date on which the venom
was extracted, and the whole supply forwarded
weekly to Professor Calmette. In this condition
the desccated venom maintains its Virulence Tor
months.
BITTEN BY A VIPER
1t must not be supposed that even in the
dexterous hands of a like KulIan the
manipulating of snakes and collecting Of venom
were unattended by considerable danger. The
man nearly lost his life on two occasions during
the above operations On the first occasion
was present when the cunning of his hand was
echs. l shall never forget my horror when
realized that the man had been outwitted and
had been fairly bitten on the tip of his finger
nor can l express my admiration of the calm
fOrtitude that he showed on that occasion
Whether it be that he really had no fear or
whether he was ashamed to show 1t L know
not 1t happend thus: He had placed a large,
active and very aggressive viper on the polished
floor and was proceeding to pinion it in the
usual way The snake seemed to comprehend his
tactics and for a considerable time Kullan's eff
forts were fciled. The little creature made
many futile attempts to attack its aggressOr by
springing forward at Kullans naked feet, but
owing to the slippery floor it was unable to
make good it's attack At length, after repeated
failures, the succeeded in pinning the
viper's head TO the floor 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 Kullans fingers, and
in doing so drove one fang fortunately there
was only one fang Prick into the fieshy part of
the mans middle finger, just below the nail In
Il second he had dashed the reptile to the ground
and was sucking with all his might at the bitten
finger. The doctor in another instant had placed
a ligature around the base of the finger and
another just above the elbow
The doctor then pulled out q scalpel and was
about to amputate the last bone of the finger
but Kullan would have none OF it.
He smiled placidly and said: DO not brighten
yourself, sahib. ] shall be all right. There's
no necessity to prevent my earning my living by
cutting off my finger. l have been bitten many
times before and am still alive, and I'm not
going to 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 en-
tered" and he held out his finger TO the doctor
who promptly did he was bid, while Kuan
stood there and scarcely WINGED at the opera
ton.
Now, sahib. kindly tell them to bring me i
lecch," said Kulan all the time sucking hard
at his finger
. In d few minutes a leech made to fasten
firmly the bottom of the wound.
Enough" CALCULATED Kulan. Now l will
ask but more favor, sahib and that is tO
excuse your slave doing any more work with
the snakes to-day. I will return next Wednes-
day, usual with plenty more snakes"
On the following Wednesday Kullan, true t.
his boastng promise, turned up usual with
his two assistants, and though his bag was not
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 liga-
lures and the arm much swollen. but he
was otherwise well and only complained Of feel
ing rather weak. He said that three four
hours after the bite he felt very i'll and thought
he was going to die. His friend sent for fakit
l. O. f III