Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-10-17
THE SNAKES PARADISE.

On the Borongo Islands, In the Fay OF
bengal.
The Borongo Islands lie about half
way between Calcutta and Rangoon.
When the snakes die they go to the
Borongos. That is tn ,ir paradise;
there they hold high carnival. l spent
three years among them and know of
these things. From the giant python
down to the deadly KARAT they are all
there, all the ophidians. Even the
salt water snakes, that are all poison
ous-they, too are there. Two Euro
peans had preceded me on the Boron
gos, so there was considerable natural
history on tap when l arrived, and
we rapidly acquired more. One can't
live among snakes without studying
them; they insist upon it.
Each evening l killed an hour or
so of the monotony by walking up and
down the path in front of the bunga-
low. big cat was my usual COM
panion. His method of introducing
himself to my notice was generally
abrupt. He would lie in wait and as
l came along, spring out upon me-
alighting against SRe Of my legs. At
other times he would lie on his back
in the path and claw at my feet as
l passed. One evening. just after turn
ing into the path from the bungalow
| felt something soft and yielding
against my foot. Thinking it was
Billy" | gave the mass gentle push.
AS l shifted the something, | saw a
twisting CLEAN of white, not at all
like the soft gray of Billy's fur. OF
course | knew what that meant Jump
ing back l brought my walking stick
down on the twisting thing, and yelled
for light. The servants came run
ming from the cookhouse with Ian
tern and I saw that | had laid out a
most villainous daboia. One touch
from the catlike fangs on my cotton
hosed instep and within an hour I
would have been dead.
One of our party had occasion to
visit a Mr. Savage. half caste land
owner on the other side of the island.
He went in boat, and while the cool
les were bringing up his traps went
up to the bungalow. He was sitting
in big chair on the veranda talk
ing to Savage, when he felt something
drop from the leaf roof onto his shou-
der. Leisurely he started to rise to
see what had fallen, when the other
man cried out For Gods sake don't
move-keep perfectly STILL" Dunlop
knew what that meant. Stealthily the
old man took Burmese dah (sword)
from the wall and catlike crept toward
the white man with the thing on his
shoulder Within striking distance he
paused and raised the dah high in the
air to cut the thing in two with one
swift downward stroke. Then his
nerve, ratified and tugged at for so
years until it was weak, failed him, .,
and the sword clattered from his
numbed fingers to the floor MY God,
| can't do it," he whined in a broken
voice and reeled back against the wall,
where he stood staring with weak eyes
at the sahib and his burden.
Dunlop neither moved nor spoke;
his only safety lay in keeping perfect
ly still-motionless. 1t might be min
utes, or a thousand years; they would
have to wait till the boatmen came.
What would happen then he could not
say. He could feel the clinging, pull
ing thing on his right shoulder There
was an undulating pressure that told
him the head of the snake was sway
ing back and forth just above his
neck. Then the song of the Madrassi
boatmen as they came swinging along
with his luggage broke upon his ear.
Those gin thickened voices, caroline
the coarse refrain to the time of the
measured trot, were angel voices. What
would the muddle Drained coolies do
he wondered If Emir Ally, his trust
ed servant, saw the Ining it might be
well; he had nerve and judgment even
close to that of a sahib Emir Ally
was in the lead. When he came to the
steps Savage jerked out an expression
that called his attention to the tableau
Gathering his loongy tight about his
loins he slipped along the veranda like
shadow, grasped the fallen dab, and
poising his black 1.-THE body for
swift, strong stroke brought the sword
through the air with swishing cut
tnat laid full grown cobra in two
neat pieces almost at the feet of the
man who had waited.-W. A. Fraser
in the Canadian Magazine.