AN ENTHUSIASTIC COLLECTOR OF SNAKES 



nest. A few days later a shikari found the place and 



escorted him there, when W , shooting the female too, 



stx!ured the eggs. 



Delighted with his find, he carefully packed up the dead 

 iiake and her eggs, which were nearly hatched, and dis- 

 patched the parcel to a friend, a well-known naturalist in 

 Bombay, who would, no doubt, as he imagined, be most 

 grateful for so interesting an addition to his collection. 



But, not being a naturalist himself, nor aware of the 

 voracity of their kind in the matter of specimens, he had, 

 as it appeared, over-estimated the value of his contribu- 

 tion, for in the course of a week or so he received a letter 

 from his friend reproaching him indignantly for sending 

 him " a few eggs and a dead snake, when he might so easUy 

 have captured and sent him the whole family alive ! " 



He evidently meant to imply that my friend should have 

 waited until the eggs were hatched, and then to make a 

 wholesale capture of the parents and their progeny, but 

 how two such deadly reptiles — ^to say nothing of the little 

 ■nes possibly as venomous — were to be caught, he did not 

 trouble to explain. 



Strangely enough, this enthusiastic collector, who, by 

 the way, was much liked and respected by all, eventually 

 fell a victim to this mania for collecting such dangerous 

 specimens, for some time afterwards he was bitten, and 

 lost his life through handling some venomous snakes in 

 his collection in Bombay. 



Another friend of mine, H , an Indian civihan, was 



•nee witness to a somewhat interesting incident in which 



ne of his men was bitten by a cobra. I venture to relate 



this because it is one of the very few authenticated cases 



of a cure being effected by the snake-stone, of which many 



have doubtless heard, but apparently few believe in. 



The friend in question was seated in his verandah one 

 morning, when one of his servants came running up to him, 

 < xclaiming that he had just been bitten by a snake and 

 showed two marks on his ankle, which after careful examina- 

 I it)n seemed to have undoubtedly been made by the fangs 

 •fa snake. 



Meanwhile, some peons and others had chased and 

 kilkxl the snake, which proved to be a large and almost 



105 



