292 A Sportswoman in India 



we have all heard people in the snake-house at the Zoo 

 say to each other, when watching the snake dart out 

 its tongue : " That's its sting ! Just one little touch 

 of that, and you're a dead man ! " 



The tongue of a snake is not its sting. A snake 

 has no sting at all. Moles and mice have their quick 

 sense of smell to guide them, cats their whiskers, 

 insects their antennas ; snakes have tongues for the 

 same purpose, and the function of this ever busy, 

 ever vigilant member is to explore, while it barely 

 touches, every surface within reach. By night and by 

 day the tongue conveys all necessary information to 

 the brain. It is kept in a sheath, and its activity is 

 so rapid, that when alarmed it moves with almost 

 lightning-like speed. A snake never licks its prey ; 

 its tongue is only intended as a nerve-guide. 



The way in which a cobra does inject poison is 

 as follows. It has eight poison-fangs in the upper 

 jaw, teeth which are artfully contrived by some 

 diabolical freak of nature as pointed tubes At the 

 extreme point of each tooth is an aperture like a tiny 

 slit cut in a quill. A little bag behind the eye, about 

 the size of an almond, contains the poison, which can 

 be forced through a passage, down the hollow teeth, 

 and out at the extreme tip right into the base of 

 the wound. 



The cobra darts, or strikes, and supposing it to 

 strike home, its teeth will just penetrate through the 

 skin, and will leave behind them two or three tiny 

 punctures on the bitten limb. But if, as it bites, it 



