SNAKES 91 



tighter and tighter by the murderers until life was 

 extinct. The murderers, contemplating an investiga- 

 tion into their crime, had chosen this method of com- 

 mitting it in the erroneous belief that the weals and 

 bruises made by the rattan thongs simulated the marks 

 made by a crushing snake, and that consequently the 

 authorities could be gulled into believing that the 

 murdered men had met their death in encounters with 

 Pythons. With this gruesome evidence before one, it 

 is permissible to regard the Sarawak Malays' story 

 with considerable doubt. 



The poisonous land-snakes of Borneo are represented 

 by six Proteroglypha of the sub-family Elapince, and 

 by five Vipers. The Elapince include two very venomous 

 " Kraits," as they are called in India the Banded 

 Krait, Bungarus fasciatus, and the Red-Headed Krait, 

 B. flaviceps, known to the Sea-Dayaks as Kendawan. 

 The former is broadly banded with cream-colour and 

 black ; the latter varies in colour on the back from 

 uniform olive-brown to deep black with brownish 

 head ; below it is grey or bluish black ; lips, chin, and 

 throat are bright yellow. My friend Mr. H. N. Ridley 

 informs me that B. fasciatus when irritated thumps 

 its tail loudly on the ground ; this action may be 

 interpreted as a warning signal, for if the snake is 

 surprised in the jungle the beating of the tail against 

 the dead leaves strewing the ground makes a con- 

 siderable rattling noise that can be heard for some 

 little distance. In India the Kraits are responsible 

 for a great many of the deaths attributed to snake-bite, 

 and from experiments conducted on animals it appears 

 that the common Indian Krait, B. candidus, is even 

 more deadly than the Cobra. Both the Cobra, Naia 



