340 COMMON REPTILES OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



One forenoon, when I was in the garden trying to 

 secure a good photograph of an infant rhinoceros 

 that had been born a day or two earlier, this keeper 

 came to the place where the superintendent and 

 I were at work, carrying a large dead cobra in one 

 hand, and displaying a most efficiently bitten fore- 

 finger on the other. He was not at all alarmed, 

 and assured us that he had at once applied a ligature 

 above the point of the injury, and, farther, that he 

 did not believe that any venom had got into the 

 wound, as it appeared to him that it had all run 

 down over the surface of the skin. He accounted 

 for his accident by saying that, having just finished 

 his morning's work, he had set out on his way home 

 for his mid-day meal, when, as he was passing along 

 the southern boundary of the garden, he saw a 

 cobra disappearing into one of the drain-pipes 

 leading through the wall. In order to prevent its 

 carrying out its purpose, he seized the snake by the 

 tail with one hand and proceeded to draw it out, 

 at the same time slipping the other hand upwards 

 along its body under the idea that it would resist 

 extraction until he was able to grasp it so near the 

 head as to render it impossible for it to strike. 

 Unfortunately, however, his calculation was upset 

 by its giving way before he expected it to do so, 

 and whilst it was still able to reach him. The 

 accident took place some time before any supplies 

 of antivenene had reached India, and when there 



