THE COMMON INDIAN SNAKES, 251 



glided off down a bank. I could quote many more incidents and 

 opinions illustrating the unaggressive temper of this snake, but 

 on the other hand I have certainty witnessed many incidents of a 

 completely contrary character. The cobra is sometimes very fierce, 

 and when disturbed may be a very dangerous snake to encounter. 

 Whatever spirit and aggressiveness may be natural to it in the 

 early days of captivity, I think all will agree that it is very easily 

 tamed. This is evident to anyone who has seen jugglers, and pro- 

 fessional snake-men with their captive specimens. If a specimen 

 has been on show for long, it will often require a good slap on its 

 back to provoke it to erect itself and hiss. The cobra that will do 

 so without such treatment one may depend upon it has been but 

 recently deprived of its liberty. 



Young cobras are much more dangerous than adults as a rule. 

 They seem more on the alert, more easily excited, and strike 

 repeatedly and with much malice. Wall (A. J.) speaks in similar 

 terms when he says : " When the young cobra is hatched, it is very 

 small, very irritable and exceedingly dangerous. A full grown 

 cobra can be handled with perfect safety, but a young one, ten 

 or eleven inches long, is so active, and its body is so small, that 

 it can be scarcely touched with impunity:" It is certainly signi- 

 ficant that one never sees a young cobra in the hands of jugglers. 



The cobra's effective striking range is a very limited one. I 

 believe the erection of its forebody and the expansion of its hood are 

 invariable preliminaries, and the height to which it can erect itself 

 forms the radius of its stroke. This radius when the snake is erect 

 is very deceptive, appearing much greater than it proves to be when 

 measured along the ground on the completion of its stroke. Jug- 

 glers from long practice estimate this range wonderfull}*, and 

 contrive to evade their captive's menace, with remarkable precision, 

 withdrawing their hands often only a few inches from the spot 

 where the stroke is delivered. 



The bite is often a mere snap of the jaws, and the bitten part 

 immediately released, but sometimes the snake will fasten itself 

 tenaciously, necessitating a forcible opening of the jaws to effect 

 release. Mr. Donaghy told me of an incident witnessed by him 

 where a young sampwalla was bitten, and the snake hung on to 

 him so that it had to be removed by forcibly prizing open the 

 jaws. Sometimes after a bite a drop or more of venom may be 

 seen on the skin of the bitten subject which may be wiped off 

 without gaining access to the punctures inflicted. More rarely 

 poison is shaken off in the form of a spray or jet by the forcible 

 thrust forward of the snake, which may fail to reach the object 

 of its attack. 



I have on more than one occasion witnessed this with jugglers 

 who unconcernedly wiped away the poison emitted. In our 

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