ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 57 



CHAPTER VI 



Snakes, harmless and otherwise — Snakestone — Snake at dinner-party — 

 Snake-charmer — Poison fangs — A cobra — Government and cobra- 

 culture — Sacred cobras of Calicut — Nondescript temple — Tanks and 

 1 holy ' water. 



While making one's way through the forest undergrowth 

 in dry, warm weather it is necessary to be ever on one's 

 guard against snakes ; cold and wet they do not like, 

 keeping hidden and sheltered when the leech season is at 

 its height, though in the plains they do seek cool, damp 

 nooks during the hot months. 



One curious point about snakes is their peculiar and 

 distinctive odour, which is so like that of wet earth that 

 at the beginning of the rains, if this smell be perceived in 

 the air, one may well be in doubt as to its cause ; but in 

 the hot weather, when no moisture is possible, and this 

 scent be noticed, one may be sure there is a snake near by. 

 That is the only indication of their presence unshared by 

 other voiceless creatures, such as lizards, innocently rustling 

 in and out under one's feet. 



Figures are said not to he, but statistics undoubtedly 

 do, and very especially those relating to the various causes 

 of death throughout some given localities as recorded 

 weekly in the Indian papers — English and native. The 

 item ' death from snake-bite ' is never missing, and is a 

 handy way of pigeon-holing deaths that are unaccounted 

 for ; one, too, which cannot be gainsaid, the true cause in 

 many cases being much likelier private squabbles ending in 

 undiscovered murder — that is, when natives are concerned ; 

 in the case of Europeans no such hiding-up would be possible. 



