i8 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



light shelter of branches and grass, as I find this 

 cooler and pleasanter than canvas, and it saves the 

 carrying of tents, a most difficult job where labour 

 is scarce and the mountain paths hard to climb. 



I had engaged some Chentsus to clear a path 

 and build the shelter of our camps, and I had quite 

 won the heart of the headman by little presents of 

 tobacco, so that he became very communicative, 

 and offered to show me shikar (sport) of all sorts. 

 I endeavoured to find out from him where the old 

 diamond workings were, but he knew nothing of 

 them, and did not even know what a diamond was 

 when shown one. He knew of some pits on a low 

 hill, but he said a Raj-Nag Pamoo had taken up 

 its abode there, and no one would go to the place, 

 as a Raj-Nag was more dreaded than a dozen 

 man-eating tigers. I may here say that there is 

 no denizen of the forest more dreaded than the 

 king-cobra. Natives who would think nothing of 

 beating up a man-eater in his favourite haunts, 

 or bearding a bear in its cave, will shrink with 

 dismay when asked to face this dreaded brute. 



The Ophiophagm Elaps or King- Cobra is the 

 fiercest and most venomous of all the serpent 

 kind. Attaining to a length of seventeen feet- 

 one was recently shot in the Kurnool forests which 

 measured eighteen and a half feet gliding over 

 the ground at a speed which soon outstrips the 

 swiftest man ; climbing trees with ease, and more 

 at home on the tree-tops than even the monkeys ; 

 fearlessly attacking without the slightest provoca- 

 tion all it meets, men or beasts, it is no wonder 



