198 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. VI. 



at Patna,, of a lady, who once lay a whole night with 

 a Cobra di Capello under her pillow. She repeatedly 

 thought, during the night, that 

 jlp^r/^Q^*; sne felt something move ; and, 

 in the morning, when she 

 snatched her pillow away, she 

 saw the thick black throat, the 

 square head, and the green 

 diamond-like eye of the reptile 

 advanced within two inches of 

 her neck. The snake was with- 

 out malice ; but, alas for her, 

 if she had, during the night, 

 pressed him a little too 

 roughly!* Dr. Russell made 

 many experiments with this 

 serpent, from which it appears that its bite will kill a 

 dog in twenty-seven minutes, and a young fowl in one 

 minute and a half. This is the snake so frequently ex- 

 hibited by the Indian jugglers, who contrive, by some 

 unknown method, to tame them so far as to perform cer- 

 tain movements in cadence, aiid to dance to the sound 

 of music. It has been naturally supposed, before this 

 could be done, that the poisonous fangs had been ex- 

 tracted ; and this question has given rise to much dis- 

 cussion : it seems, however, from the following anec- 

 dote, that this is not usually practised : " A man, who 

 had been entertaining Mr. Forbes one evening with his 

 dancing snakes, the next day was exhibiting the same 

 performances to some peasants, when suddenly one of 

 the vicious animals darted at the throat of a young 

 woman, and inflicted a wound, of which she died in 

 half an hour."t The Cerastes, or horned viper, is one of 

 the most deadly serpents of the African deserts. They 

 are so numerous in some parts, that Bruce mentions, 

 half a dozen would sometimes be found round the em- 

 bers of the fire where the travellers had dressed their 



* Heber's Journal, vol. ii. p. 

 t Orient. Mem. yol. i. p. 41. 



319. 



