n OPHIDIAN EEPTILES. 



feeling is now perhaps rather the exception than the rule, though 

 probably as strong as ever in Nepil." A fine example of the 

 still more formidable gigantic Cobra {Hamadryas elaps), to be 

 noticed presently, was obtained from an earthen pot which had 

 floated out to sea. 



The late Sir J. Emerson Tennent mentions that " the Cingha- 

 lese remark that if one Cobra be destroyed near a house, its com- 

 panion is almost certain to be discovered immediately after — a 

 popular belief which I had an opportunity of verifying on more 

 than one occasion. Once, when a Snake of this description was 

 killed in a bath of the G-overnment House at Colombo, its mate 

 was found in the same spot the day after ; and again, at my own 

 stables, a Cobra of five feet long having fallen into the well, which 

 was too deep to permit its' escape, its companion, of the same size, 

 was found the same morning in an adjoining drain.* On this 

 occasion the Snake, which had been several hours in the well, 

 swam with ease, raising its head and hood above water ; and, 

 instances have repeatedly occurred of the Cobra di capella volun- 

 tarily taking considerable excursions by sea" (or by rivers, as the 

 writer has personally witnessed).] 



Cobras are much dreaded, for they instil the most subtle poison 

 into their bites. Their manners are very singular. When at 

 rest the neck of the animal is no larger in diameter than the head ; 

 but when under the influence of passion and irritation the neck 

 swells at the same time that the animal raises the front part of his 

 body vertically, holding this part straight and rigid as an 

 iron bar. The lower part of the body rests upon the ground, and 

 serves as a support to the upper part, which is movable and capable 

 of locomotion. This faculty of dilating the neck is as striking a trait 

 n the organization of the Cobras, as the rattle is in Crotalus. 

 The ancient inhabitants of Egypt adored them ; they attributed 

 to their protection the preservation of grain, and allowed them to 

 live in the midst of their cultivated fields. The Cobra is no longer 

 an object of adoration in the East, but is held sacred by many 

 people, and it serves in nearly every country of Asia as a very 



* " Pliny,'' remarks Sir J. E. Tennent, "notices the affection that suhsists hetweeu 

 the male and female Asp (or African Cohra) ; and that if one of them happens to be 

 kiUed, the other seeks to avenge its death " — lih. viii. i>. 37. 



