934 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XX. 



(c) Vernacular. — The name applied to it in Orissa — " bunga- 

 vum paniah " is Telugu and means "gold snake." In Bengal it is 

 usually called " rajsamp," a name probably suggested by the golden 

 belts which encircle it. also " sankni." This latter appears to be 

 connected with the word pronounced like our English "sunk" 

 which is applied to the couch shells blown in Temples. If I am 

 correctly informed these large shells are sometimes cut into several 

 pieces by cross sections so as to make bracelets which are worn by 

 Bengali women, and there is a street in Dacca where man)- crafts- 

 men engaged in this occupation have congregated, and given to 

 the street the name of "sunkaree." "Sankni" then appears to 

 be a wearer of bracelets. Mr. E. Muir tells me about " kalna " 

 (Bengal) it is usually called "sankni," but by the Hindus 

 " dumukha " or two-mouthed. Also, he says, that the Santhals call 

 it "bangphora"' meaning two-mouthed, and "beengv' 



In the North-West of Bengal, Fayrer * says it is called " kochlia 

 krait." In Burma it has many names, " mywe min" (king 

 snake), "ngan-wa" (yellow snake), " ngan-daw-ja " (banded 

 royal snake), " nat mywe " (spirit snake), and " ngan-than 

 kwinsyut " (or " ngan-than-gwin-zok " as Theobald has it) which 

 means literally a cylinder with bands or rings on it. 



General characters. — The banded krait when adult is a snake 

 of respectable dimensions which attracts attention by its very 

 distinctive, and highly ornamental, colouration. The head is broad 

 and depressed, the snout short, and bluntly rounded. The eye is 

 moderate in size, and blackish throughout, the pupil being usually 

 invisible, but if looked at closely, sometimes an inconspicuous yellow- 

 ish rim is seen to indicate its outline. The neck is barely 

 apparent, the body smooth and glossy with a conspicuous ridge 

 down the spine, and the tail short and ending abruptly in a linger- 

 like extremity. 



Colour. — The whole snake is broadly and alternately banded 

 with canary-yellow and black. These bands involve from 5 to 7 

 scales in the length of the snake, completely encircle the body, and 

 are of wonderfully even width, like a broad bracelet. The black 



Thanatophidia, p. 11. 



