24 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



snake at each hiss, or from sheer funk, I cannot 

 say. Why I did not use my gun when I might 

 easily have blown the head off the horrid monster, 

 I do not know. 



I now saw the utility of the cord hanging from 

 the apex of the basket. As I felt my head spinning, 

 I threw my weight on the cord and kept the basket 

 firmly planted on the ground. It was well I did so, 

 for suddenly I heard a dull thud, and then a suc- 

 cession of blows on the sides of the basket, and 

 saw the great cobra wriggling on the ground en- 

 deavouring to extract with its mouth an arrow 

 deeply imbedded in its body about three feet 

 from the head. A second and a third arrow 

 were now planted in its body by the Chentsus, 

 who shot from under their basket, raising it 

 for the purpose. I now felt a violent tug at the 

 top of the coop, and looking up saw a second 

 king-cobra biting the knot of the cord out- 

 side the basket, and by which I held it down, 

 and shaking it just as a dog does a rat. The 

 terror of that moment I cannot express. What 

 if it should overturn the basket ! The strength 

 of thirteen feet of muscle must be enormous, and 

 if used in the right direction would soon over- 

 come my pull at the cord. What would then 

 happen ? Certain death for me I felt sure. 

 Again the whiz of an arrow, and I saw a gaping 

 wound along the neck of the fierce brute as it 

 quitted its hold to look for this new foe. Fixing 

 my knee on the cord, I now placed the muzzle of 

 my gun just through one of the square openings 



