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in my chamber up stairs. Thomson truly defines this dreadful 
reptile, as 
“ The small close-lurking minister of fate: 
“ Whose high-concocted venom through the veins 
“ A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift 
“ The vital current. — Form'd to humble man ! 
“ This child of vengeful nature !” 
The cobra di capello, or hooded-snake (coluber naja), called 
by the Indians the naag, or nagao, is a large and beautiful ser- 
pent; but one of the most venomous of all the coluber class; 
its bite generally proves mortal in less than an hour. It is called 
the hooded snake, from having a curious hood near the head, 
which it contracts or enlarges at pleasure; the center of this hood 
is marked in black and white like a pair of spectacles, from whence 
it is also named the spectacle-snake. 
Of this genus are the dancing-snakes, which are carried in 
baskets throughout Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a 
set of people, who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which 
the snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful mo- 
tion of the head; erecting about half their length from the ground, 
and following the music with gentle curves, like the undulating 
lines of a swan’s neck. It is a well attested fact, that when a 
house is infested with these snakes, and some others of the coluber 
genus, which destroy poultry and small domestic animals, as also 
by the larger serpents of the boa tribe, the musicians are sent for; 
who by playing on a flagelet, find out their hiding-places, and 
charm them to destruction: for no sooner do the snakes hear the 
