CuAP. iir.] 



SNAKES. 



193 



three feet long, and so purely white as to induce 

 him to beheve that it was an albino. With the ex- 

 ception of the rat-snake ^, the cobra de capello is the 

 only serpent which seems from choice to frequent 

 the vicinity of human dwellings, but it is doubtless 

 attracted by the young of the domestic fowl and 

 by the moisture of the wells and drainage. The 

 Singhalese remark that if one cobra be destroyed 

 near a house, its companion is almost certain to be dis- 

 covered immediately after, — a popular behef which I had 

 an opportunity of verifying on more than one occasion. 

 Once, when a snake of this description was killed in 

 a bath of Government House at Colombo, its mate 

 was found in the same spot the day after ; and again, 

 at my own stables, a cobra of five feet long, having 

 fallen into the well, which was too deep to permit 

 its escape, its companion of the same size was found 

 the same morning in an adjoining drain.^ On this 

 occasion the snake, which had been several hours in 

 the well, swam with ease, raising its head and hood 

 above water ; and instances have repeatedly occurred 

 of the cobra de capello voluntarily taking considerable 

 excursions by sea. When the " Welhngton," a govern- 



^ Coryphodon Blumenbacliii. 

 Wolf, in his interesting story of his 

 Life and Adventures in Ceylon, men- 

 tions that rat-snakes were often so 

 domesticated by the natives as to feed 

 at their table. He says : " I once 

 saw an example of this in the house 

 of a native. It being meal time, he 

 called his snake, which immediately 

 came forth from the roof under 

 which he and I were sitting. He 

 gave it victuals from his own dish, 

 which the snake took of itself fi'om 

 oft' a fig-leaf that was laid for it, and 

 ate along with its host. When it 

 had eaten its fill, he gave it a kiss 

 and bade it go to its hole." 



Since the above was written, Major 

 Skinner, writing to me 12th Dec. 

 1858, mentions the still more remarli- 

 able case of the domestication of the 



VOL. I. O 



cobra de capello in Ceylon. ''Did 

 you ever hear," he says, "of tame 

 cobras being kept and domesticated 

 about a house, going in and out at 

 pleasiu'e, and in common with the 

 rest of the inmates ? In one family, 

 near Negombo, cobras are Icept as 

 protectors, in the place of dogs, by 

 a wealthy man who has always large 

 sums of money in his house. But 

 this is not a solitary case of the kind. 

 I heard of it only the other day, but 

 from undoubted!}^ good authoritj'. 

 The snakes glide about the house, a 

 terror to thieves, but never attempt- 

 ing to harm the inmates." 



^ Pliny notices the affection that 

 subsists between the male and female 

 asp ; and that if one of tliem happens 

 to be killed, the other seeks to avenge 

 its death, — Lib. viii. c. 37,. 



