SOMETHING ABOUT SNAKES. 



495 



men, one to keep up the fire and turn the wheel, and the other to 

 direct and hold the nozzle-pipe. It was also requisite that a third 

 man should stand by with a stick, to kill the snake bolting from 

 its hole. We turned out with the apparatus properly manned, 

 lighted the fire to get up smoke, and applied the nozzle to a hole 

 in a bank near the stable, which was supposed to hold a snake. 

 The smoke was injected, and out there bolted a terrified rat. The 

 man with the stick struck at the rat and broke the nozzle-pipe. 

 The man at the nozzle-pipe jumped back against the man who 

 was turning the wheel, and in their fright they both tumbled 

 down. The rat escaped, but if it had been a snake instead of a 

 rat it is very probable that one of the three operators might have 

 been bitten. The men lost confidence in the machine, and declined 

 to work it. It was taken indoors, and put into an anteroom, where 

 the native night-watchman usually took up his quarters. One 

 cold night the watchman closed the doors of the room and lit a 

 quantity of the medicated paper to warm himself. In the morn- 

 ing a well-asphyxiated watchman was found, but luckily he was 

 brought round with deluges of cold water. This, however, was 

 the end of the ofiicial career of the Duke of Argyll's snake-asphyx- 

 iator in Bengal. 



Although most people have a natural aversion to snakes, and 

 would on no account touch them, there are some persons who are 

 accustomed to handle snakes {tradare serpentes), and will pick up 

 a wild poisonous snake from the ground with impunity. George 

 Borrow, the author of " The Gypsies in Spain," had this faculty ; 

 and I knew two officers, one of whom was a captain in a Scotch 

 regiment, while his brother was the doctor, who said that this fac- 

 ulty of handling snakes had been born in them. In a work j^ub- 

 lished not long ago by Mr. F. B. Simson, a retired Indian civilian, 

 he gives the following prescription for catching cobras : " When 

 you come upon your cobra, make him rear up and expand his 

 hood. He generally does this quickly enough ; but should he de- 

 lay, whistle to him, imitating the snake-charmers. He will then 

 certainly raise his head. Then with a small cane or stick, or the 

 ramrod of a gun, gently press his head to the ground. The snake 

 will not object ; he seems rather to like it. When you press his 

 head lightly to the ground with the stick in your left hand, you 

 should seize the snake firmly with your right, close behind the 

 head, holding his neck rather tightly ; then let go the stick and 

 catch hold of the tail. The snake is powerless, and you can do 

 what you like with it. You should have an earthen pot brought 

 and let the snake pass into it, as snakes will always go into any 

 dark place." On the whole this prescription does not seem invit- 

 ing. I have never tried it, and should hardly care to see any one 

 try it. 



