140 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



or mongoose scared by the sight of a cobra's 

 hood. Nor, so far as we can see, is the 

 snake's venom (which is wrongly called 

 " poison") of much use to it. It may, no 

 doubt, cause the death of a buffalo or boar, but it 

 does not take effect at once, and the dying 

 animal has ample time in which to kill the 

 snake before its own hour comes. The mon- 

 goose most of us can remember Rikki-tikki 

 is a sworn foe of all the snake tribe, and par- 

 ticularly of the cobra. Many remarkable 

 stories are told of the plucky little creature 

 and its deadly combats with cobras. Some 

 say that its skin is proof against the reptile's 

 fangs ; others declare that, on being bitten, it 

 rushes off to the jungle and devours a par- 

 ticular herb that it knows to be an efficient 

 antidote. These little efforts of the imagina- 

 tion are not without interest, but Nature is 

 quite wonderful enough without embroidery of 

 this sort. The secret of success with the mon- 

 goose is far simpler. It consists in not being 

 bitten at all. Prevention is better than cure, 

 and by snapping at its wriggling enemy, and 

 jumping out of reach before the other can strike 

 back, it gradually wears it out until, at the 

 last, it is able to give one last bite and finish 

 it off. I have seen snake-charmers show 

 wonderful indifference when handling deadly 

 snakes, but some of their courage was after- 



