XXVII 



SNAKES 



" .... to watch some chattering snake-tamer 

 Wind round his wrist the living jewellery 

 Of asp and na"g, or charm the hooded death 

 To angry dance with drone of beaded gourd." 



The Light of Asia. 



"The slumbering venom of the folded snake." 



The Corsair. 



EVERY garden worthy the name is sure to contain a 

 resident population of snakes, but it is only in sub- 

 urban gardens that venomous ones are common. On 

 going out into a garden early in the morning during 

 the hot weather, and while the dusty walks have not 

 yet been disturbed by the day's traffic, curious 

 sinuous trails are often to be seen marking the lines 

 followed by snakes during their nocturnal travels. 

 Each track consists of an aggregate of rounded or 

 oval, somewhat depressed patches. These are some- 

 times quite discrete and separated from one another 

 by little ridges, but in other cases they are more or 

 less indistinct and fused with one another, differ- 



