NAJA. 11 



water readily, and swim well, but are essentially terrestrial snakes. 

 They can climb, and occasionally ascend trees in search of food. Cobras 

 are not unfrequently found in the roofs of huts, holes in walls, fowl 

 houses, old ruins, under logs of wood, in cellars, old brick kUns, and old 

 masonry of stone, brickwork, or mud. Such are the common dwelling- 

 places of these reptiles, and where they are frequently disturbed by 

 men, who, stepping on or inadvertently disturbing and touching them, 

 receive their death- wound. 



" The cobra is most deadly, and its poison, when thoroughly inocu- 

 lated by a fresh and vigorous snake, is quickly fatal. Paralysis of the 

 nerve-centres takes place, and death occurs with great rapidity, some- 

 times in a few minutes, especially when the fangs, having penetrated a 

 vein, inoculate the poison immediately into the venous circulation. The 

 number of deaths caused yearly in India by these snakes is perfectly 

 appalling. The cases in which recovery occurs are, it is to be feared, 

 very few ; treatment appears to be of little avail unless it be almost 

 immediate, and then, in the case of a genuine bite, there is but httle 

 hope of saving life. As to the mode of treatment and other matters 

 connected with the bite of the cobra, and the great mortahty caused by 

 it in India, they will be described subsequently. 



" The cobras are the favourites of the snake-charmers, and it is 

 astonishing with what ease and freedom they are seized and handled by 

 these men, even when in possession of their fangs. The snake-catchers 

 render them temporarily harmless by cutting out the poison fangs ; but 

 these are quickly reproduced, unless, as most generally happens, with 

 the fang aU the reserve fangs and germs are removed, in which case the 

 snake is harmless for life. Their graceful movements in the erect atti- 

 tude they assume with the hood distended as they follow the move- 

 ments of the snake-charmer's hands, make them an object of wonder as 

 well as fear to all, and the superstitions of the natives about them are 

 endless. The muntra, or spell, is far more potent in their idea than any 

 drug, and to such they generally trust when bitten. How frequently 

 these fail the records of any civU station in India wUl prove, and it is to 

 be feared that the more material remedies of the physician are scarcely 

 more potent for good. 



" The snake-catchers in Bengal describe a great variety of cobras. The 



