326 SHAKES 



mortal knot until his prey is dead, when, seizing it by the 

 ears, he draws it through his vice-like grip, crushing every 

 bone, and elongating the body preparatory to devouring it. 



The arrangement for feeding the venomous kinds is, of course, 

 more cautious. The door opens at the top instead of at the 

 side of the dens, and with good reason ; for no sooner does the 

 keeper remove with a crooked iron rod, the blanket from the 

 cobra, than the reptile springs with inflated hood into an S like 

 attitude and darts laterally at his prey, whose sides have 

 scarcely been pierced, when it is seized with tetanic spasms, and 

 lies convulsed in a few seconds. 



These instantaneous effects, altoost as rapid as those of a 

 mortal shot or of lightning itself, might at first sight seem to 

 warrant the conclusion that the genius of evil had formed the 

 venomous serpents to be his chosen agents of destruction ; but at 

 a nearer view, they afford but another proof of the beneficence 

 of the Creator in providing weak, sober, and by no means cruel 

 creatures with a weapon which makes up to them for the want 

 of speed, and at the same time abridges the torments of their 

 victims. 



Though generally the objects of abhorrence and fear, yet 

 serpents sometimes render themselves useful or agreeable to 

 man. Thus the rat-snake of Ceylon {Coi^pJiodon Blumen- 

 bachii) in consideration of its services in destroying vermin, is 

 often kept as a household pet, and so domesticated by the 

 natives as to feed at their table. 



" I once saw an example of this in the house of a native," says 

 Wolf in his " Life and Adventures in Ceylon ; " " 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 from off a fig 

 leaf that was laid for it, and ate along with its host. When 

 it had eaten its full, he gave it a kiss, and bade it go to its 

 hole." 



The beautiful coral-snake (Flaps corallinus) is fondled by 

 the Brazilian ladies, but the domestication of the dreaded 

 cobras as protectors in the place of dogs, mentioned by Major 

 Skinner, on undoubtedly good authority,* is still more re- 



* Sir E. Tennent's Ceylon, yol. i. p. 193. 



* 



