STORY OF THE MUNGOOSE. 
To my mind the best all-around rough-and-ready fighter, of his size, 
in the animal kingdom is the mungoose. In India this little creature de¬ 
lights in nothing so much as to meet a cobra, the most deadly of all snakes. 
The mungoose is about the size of a cat. It lies in wait for its hered¬ 
itary enemy, or rather victim, for the fight always has one ending, and 
when the serpent comes into range attacks with a desperation born of the 
knowledge of the cobra’s venomous bite. His mode of attack is to tease 
the snake into darting at him, when with inconceivable rapidity he pounces 
on the reptile’s head. 
Much has been written as to the combats of both the Egyptian and the 
Indian mungoose with venomous snakes, and also as to the alleged immu¬ 
nity of these animals from snake poison. The prevalent belief throughout 
oriental countries is that the mungoose, when bitten, seeks for an antidote, 
a herb or root known in India as manguswail. It is scarcely necessary to 
say that the story is destitute of foundation. There is, however, another 
view, supported by some evidence, that the mungoose is less susceptible to 
snake poison than other animals. I have not seen many combats, but, so 
far as 1 can judge from the few I have witnessed, the mungoose escaped 
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