DEATH FROM SNAKE-BITE 105 



desire to be trodden on. It does its best to avoid 

 that mischance, and, I need scarcely say, so does a 

 man unless he is drunk. When both parties are 

 sincerely anxious to avoid a collision, a collision 

 is not at all likely to occur, and the fact is that, of 

 all forms of death to which we are exposed in India, 

 death by snake-bite is about the one which we 

 have least reason to apprehend. 



During a pretty long residence in India I have 

 heard of only one instance of an Englishman being 

 killed by a snake. It was in Manipur, and I read 

 of it in the newspapers. During the same time I 

 have heard of only one death by lightning and 

 one by falling into the fermenting vat of a brewery, 

 so I suppose these accidents are equally uncommon. 

 Eating oysters is much more fatal : I have heard of 

 at least four or five deaths from that cause. 



The natives are far more exposed to danger from 

 snakes than we are, because they go barefoot, by 

 night as well as day, through fields and along narrow, 

 overgrown footpaths about their villages. The 

 tread of a barefooted man does not make noise 

 enough to warn a snake to get out of his way, 

 and if he treads on one, there is nothing between 

 its fangs and his skin. Again, the huts of the 

 natives, being made of wattle and daub and 

 thatched with straw, offer to snakes just the kind 

 of shelter that they like, and the wonder is that 

 naked men, sleeping on the ground in such places, 

 and poking about dark corners, among their stores 



