102 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



well if people having killed a snake were to examine its 

 jaws, so that next time they come across a similar kind 

 they may know whether it is really dangerous, or whether 

 it is in fact a harmless friend, merely hunting down the 

 mice, like any well-regulated domestic cat. The jaws 

 of the dead reptile having been prised open, it is easy 

 with a pin or a pen nib to examine the nature of the teeth. 

 If the snake carries right in the front of the upper jaw a 

 pair of long slender fangs like small fish bones which lie 

 more or less flat along the jaw, then you may put him 

 down at once as a dangerous creature to be slain at 

 sight. 



If there are no fangs in the front part of the jaw, but 

 two or more longish ones towards the back part of it, 

 then the snake is no doubt of the back fanged kind, and 

 may be regarded with justifiable lack of sympathy. 



Should, however, the snake be found to possess only 

 a set of little short teeth with no prominent fangs (teeth 

 in fact more or less like those of a small fish) or no dis- 

 cernible teeth at all, it is doubtless perfectly harmless. 



Although all snakes are regarded by the vast majority 

 of people with a sort of hereditary aversion, still it should 

 not be forgotten that all of them are great destroyers of 

 small vermin, and the harmless kinds have nothing 

 whatever against them. 



CHAPTER XV 



POISONOUS SNAKES: THE MAMBA COBRAS 



THE poisonous land snakes of Africa mostly belong 

 to two very distinct sub-families, one containing the 

 cobras and mambas and the other the vipers. There are 

 several important differences of bodily structure between 



