CHAPTER IX 



SNAKES. DELHI 



City of tall faades of marble ! 



Proud and passionate city mettlesome, mad, extravagant city! 



Pale, silent, stern, what could I say to that long accrued retribution ? 



Could I wish humanity different? 



Could I wish the people made of wood and stone ? 



Or that there be no justice in destiny or time ? 



WALT WHITMAN. 



INDIA is, in the minds of a certain class of people, 

 connected indissolubly with snakes ; but as a 

 matter of fact, the ordinary Englishwoman, out there 

 for a year or so, is quite likely never to meet with 

 one in the whole of her visit. To most people that 

 would be no disappointment. " Those lithe and 

 elegant beings," as Rymer Jones calls them, are not 

 appreciated in one's bath-room and in inconveniently 

 dark corners. 



A snake, if one considers it, is really a wonderful 

 animal. Without arms or legs, it is able to catch 

 its prey. It can swallow an animal twice the size 

 of its own head. It can leap its own length upwards 

 or sideways, though again it is without limbs of 



any sort. It can lie under water happily for half 



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