142 THE EASTERN HUNTEES. 



"No. They will nearly always avoid man if 

 possible. The danger is, when one comes upon them 

 unexpectedly, or when they are asleep, and they 

 have no time to get out of the way. Mac, I 

 imagine, must have done so to-day. I doubt 

 if they ever attack man in pure unreasoning 

 anger." 



" I don't know that," said Mac. " It is said the 

 female, with eggs or young, will do so. I once saw 

 a cobra dart out of a bush at a man, miss him, and 

 wriggle back again. It is true he was beating, or 

 if I remember right just going to beat, the bush 

 for a quail, which had flown into the grass at its 

 roots, and was yet a little distant from it. The 

 snake seemed to come out of his way to attack, 

 instead of slipping quietly off." 



" At certain seasons they do appear more irritable 

 than at others," Norman remarked. " But speaking 

 of narrow escapes, I can recall to mind four different 

 occasions when snakes have wriggled from between 

 my legs, or I have stepped over them. Twice it was 

 dusk, and each time a whip-snake, I believe, glided 

 away as if from my very feet. A hiss from the 

 creature, immediately behind me in the grass, was 

 the first intimation I had of having stept over one 

 once, while out shooting." 



" I have not yet experienced them so close to my 



