THE COBRA AND OTHER SERPENTS. 75 



been mentioned above that lie is so excitable that he will strike at 

 a moving adversary long before he comes near enough to actually- 

 hit his object ; and it is in striking thus from a distance that the 

 poison-controlling muscles act as if he really struck something, 

 and the distended gland gives way to the pressure, forcing the 

 contents, which in other circumstances would have been injected 

 into the flesh, to go instead in two thin streams through the air. 



In regard to the manner in which the cobra strikes with effect 

 without opening his mouth, it is necessary to state that while the 

 fangs of the rattlesnake and other viperine snakes are laid hori- 

 zontally back along the upper jaw when the mouth is closed and 

 only erected when the mouth is widely open, it is not so in the 

 cobra ; but whether his mouth be open or shut, his fangs are always 

 partially or wholly erect, and 

 not in the true sense of the / / \ ,^ 

 word reclinable. Now, usual- ( ( \\^ 

 ly when he strikes at an ad- \ \ / / 

 versary his mouth does not /' ( 



open as does the rattlesnake's, 

 but he simply hits with his 

 chin the point he aims at, so [\ \] 2 

 that, the mouth being still 

 shut and the fangs during 



the act coming out over and Harmless. Venomous, 



slightly below the lower lip, Fig. ^.-Punctures or Bites of Snakes. 



these protruding fang-points 



penetrate the skin, while at the same instant the potent venom is 

 squirted with force through these natural hypodermic syringes 

 into the superficial punctures. Hence it is that on the bare legs 

 of the natives this so-called "bite" is usually fatal, while the 

 slight protection of trousers saves the European from danger. 



As to the third peculiarity of this snake viz., the fit of tempo- 

 rary lockjaw into which he is liable to fall and the terribly pro- 

 longed and real bite he can give when in that state the account 

 of an interesting adventure I once had will give a fitting illustra- 

 tion. It was a most wonderful exhibition of reptilian hysterics. 



In the midst of a South African summer, when the springs and 

 rivers are dried up, ""he snakes congregate in unusual numbers 

 around the dams which are built by the colonists to store up in 

 the ravines for themselves and their cattle the drinking supply 

 afforded during the rains by the mountain torrents. At one of 

 these reservoirs in Carrie's Kloof, near Grahamstown, I had se- 

 cured several fine serpents, and was not surprised therefore when 

 one afternoon, as I was sitting by an upper window, I saw a boy 

 running from that direction toward the house, shouting as loud as 

 he could bawl, "A snake, sir a monster snake ! " 



