20 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



remote jungles. It has a black circle on the hood. 

 It is this serpent, with its enormous hood nearly 

 a foot in width, which, legend relates, sheltered the 

 infant Krishna from the sun and weather. Its 

 range is over all the wooded tracts of India. It 

 has been shot in Travancore, on the Neilgherries, 

 in the forests of the East Coast, in Chota Nagpore, 

 in Assam and in Burmah. But nowhere is it found 

 in large numbers. Although the female lays as 

 many as eighteen eggs, most of the young are 

 devoured by the parents, so difficult is it for 

 these creatures to find food, as, according to 

 the natives, nearly all small animals desert the 

 tract in which a pair of these snakes take up 

 their abode. 



I asked Permal, the Chentsu headman, how he 

 knew that a king-cobra had taken possession of 

 the old pits. He said that the hill in question had 

 been a favourite spot for snaring pea-fowl, but 

 that about three years ago the Raj-Nag had come 

 and then all other animals had left the place. He 

 knew the Raj-Nag had come, because the monkeys 

 did not answer the decoy call used by the Chentsus 

 when trapping these creatures. This only occurred 

 when a Raj-Nag was about so their forest lore 

 taught them. I asked him if he would lead me to 

 the place, as I had my double-barrel gun with me, 

 and would shoot the Nag if it showed itself. " The 

 Davaru " (lord), he replied, " does not know the 

 Raj -Nag ; it is as lightning in its attack. It will 

 be concealed in the branches or brushwood, and 

 will dart forward and bite before you see it. 



