180 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
are hatched out by the natural heat at some period during the 
autumn. The baby Cobras sally forth and scatter to take up 
the struggle for life all alone. A fierce struggle it is, too. He is 
beset and encompassed around by enemies. Creatures which 
would flee from an adult Cobra boldly attack and eat him up. 
Even his parents, if he subsequently crosses their path, know him 
not, and devour him. Snakes of other species attack and over- 
power him. Food, perchance, is scarce, and winter is fast 
approaching. If a certain amount of fat is not laid by in his 
interior, he knows untaught that the chills of winter will freeze 
his sluggish blood and destroy his life. He, perhaps, is successful 
in his hunting excursions, and, sleek and fat, he retires into the 
innermost corner of a crevice, hole, or under some decaying 
leaves, to sleep out the winter. Even here he is not safe. Big 
carnivorous beetles and rats find him out and devour him. 
The Cobra is so active that he can often succeed in dodging 
stones aimed at him for some time without being struck. One 
day I bombarded a large Cobra with stones, and for several 
minutes did not succeed in striking him. With body reared, he 
faced me, and seemed to move his body just sufficiently to avoid 
the missile. A walking-stick was hurled at him, but instantly 
he dropped upon the ground, to be again up in an instant. 
I watched a waggon-driver slashing at a Cobra with a long 
whip. He delivered blow after blow in a lateral direction, so 
that the end of the lash would catch the Cobra on the reared 
part of his body. However, for ten minutes or more that Cobra 
dodged the lash by rapidly dropping upon the ground and rearing 
again when the lash swept past him. 
A COBRA IN A SCHOOLROOM. 
One day recently, when a lady principal was in the middle of 
a school lesson, she heard a slight rustling noise near her elbow. 
Glancing down, she was horrified to see the head and forepart of 
a yellow variety of Cape Cobra in the act of climbing up her 
chair. Vacating the chair with more haste than dignity, she 
joined the crowd of coloured school-children who were making 
for the door. The news soon spread, and within half an hour an 
army of Malays, Chinamen, and folk of every shade of colour, 
