300 THE TllOPlCAL WORLD. 



preceding evening entertaining the country people with tlie 

 dancing snakes ; they, according to their usual custom, sat on the 

 ground around him, when, either from the music stopping too 

 suddenly or from some other cause irritating the snake which 

 he had so often handled, it darted at the throat of a young 

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

 an hour. That the snake-charmers control the cobra not by 

 extracting its fangs, but by courageously availing themselves 

 of its timidity and reluctance to use them, was also proved 

 during Sir E. Tennent's residence in Ceylon by the death of one of 

 these performers, whom his audience had provoked to attempt 

 some unaccustomed familiarity with the cobra ; it bit him on 

 the wrist, and he expired the same evening. 



The deserted nests of the termites are the favourite retreat 

 of the sluggish and spiritless cobra, which watches from their 

 apertures the toads and lizards on which it preys. On coming 

 upon it, its only impulse is concealment ; and when it is unable 

 to escape, a few blows from a whip are sufficient to deprive it 

 of life. 



It is a curious fact that, though not a water-snake, the cobra 

 sometimes takes considerable excursions by sea. When the 

 ' Wellington,' a Grovernment vessel employed in the inspection 

 of the Ceylonese pearl-banks, was anchored about a quarter of 

 a mile from land, a cobra was seen, about an hour before sun- 

 set, swimming vigorously towards the ship. It came within 

 twelve yards, when the sailors assailed it with billets of wood 

 and other missiles, and forced it to return to land. 



The Egyptian Haje {Naja Haje), a near relation of the 

 Indian cobra, is probably the asp of ancient authors, which 

 Queen Cleopatra chose as the instrument of her death, to avoid 

 figuring in the triumph of Augustus. Like the cobra, it 

 inflates its neck when in a state of excitement, and as it raises 

 its head on being approached, as if watchful for its safety, it 

 was venerated by the ancient Egyptians as a symbol of divinity, 

 and as the faithful guardian of their fields. Divine honours 

 have, however, much mofe frequently been paid to the venomous 

 snakes from the terror they inspire, than from far-fetched 

 notions of beneficence. Several Indian tribes in North 

 America adore the rattlesnake ; and in the kingdom of Widah, 

 on the coast of Guinea, a viper has its temple and ministers. 



