210 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



made, no less than seventeen cures were effected. 

 As a rough and ready form of treatment, however, 

 especially when no drugs are available, the best 

 plan is to apply a tight ligature between the wound 

 and the heart in order to prevent the venom from 

 circulating through the victim's system ; after 

 which the seat of the punctures should be deeply 

 lanced so as to cause the blood to flow out of the 

 wound and carry the poison with it. 



The snake-charmers of India resort to a curious 

 method for counteracting the effects of a cobra's bite 

 by placing upon the wound a Pamhoo-Kaloo or 

 ' snake-stone,' concerning which Mr. M'Dahlah 

 wrote an interesting article (published in the Field 

 some years back) describing his personal observa- 

 tions of a native who was bitten on the finger by one 

 of the reptiles. He tells us that the man first of 

 all took a dried piece of wood from out of a bag and 

 proceeded to draw rings with it around his fore-arm, 

 with the avowed object of preventing the venom 

 from travelling beyond the marks thus made. The 

 victim then squeezed the finger until the seat of 

 the punctured wounds was clearly revealed by 

 drops of blood, and afterwards laid thereon a small 

 black stone, resembling a halfpenny both in shape 

 and size, which he had previously moistened with 

 his saliva. When once in place, the stone remained 

 attached to the finger, no matter in what position 

 the man held his hand, for a period of twenty min- 

 utes ; after which it dropped off. ' The falling of 

 the stone ' — ^to quote the narrator's own words — 

 ' was the signal for the break-up of the interested 



