SNAKES 357 



motionless on the floor of their enclosures. When 

 disturbed, they utter a loud, red-hot, hissing remon- 

 strance, with a peculiar, slow vicious intensity ; and 

 when the annoyance continues, suddenly straighten 

 themselves out to dart in the direction from 'which 

 it proceeds. One very fine specimen in the collec- 

 tion at Alipur suddenly increased the population by 

 contributing a brood of about forty young vipers 

 to it. They were quite surprisingly beautiful in 

 the lustrous brilliancy and vivid colouring of their 

 iridescent coats, but all died off within a very short 

 time after their birth. It is curious to note the 

 caution and respect with which even the most 

 expert snake-charmers treat daboias. Here there is 

 none of the reckless thrusting of hands into bags, 

 or careless liberation of several prisoners at one 

 time that take place where cobras are in question. 

 Even when a bag contains only a single snake 

 the captive is carefully shaken out, and securely 

 pinned down by means of a crutched stick ere any 

 attempt is made to lay hold of him. The venom 

 is usually collected in the same way as that of 

 cobras is, but the process is far more interesting to 

 witness, owing to the ferocity with which the 

 apparatus is seized and worried whilst the glutinous, 

 golden-yellow venom drips from the extremities of 

 the great, curved fangs. 



Special precautions are called for in any attempts 

 at establishing artificial immunity against the venom 



