Kareits and Hamadryads 
Some of the Reptiles that are Seen Occasionally 
by the Sportsman in Burma 
By STARLIGHT 
D URING a time of service with the British 
Army I once found myself stationed at a 
little place called Thayet-Myo. 1 his little 
jungle town lies on the right bank of the Irra- 
wady River, 600 miles or so north of Rangoon. 
This district swarmed with snakes, of which the 
kinds most frequently to be met with were the 
grass and rat snakes, cobras, Russell’s vipers 
and kareits, though the python or anaconda was 
not rare. 
Snakes were frequently found in the house. 
Many houses had snake proof little wire gates 
at the top of verandah steps, and at the foot of 
inside stairways. The favorite resort of these 
reptiles used to be above the ceiling cloths, where 
on looking up one could distinguish their shapes 
outlined by the sagging of the cloth under the.r 
weight. At that time most of the bungalows 
had these ceiling cloths stretched under the fiber- 
thatched roofs to prevent dust and insects from 
falling into the room. It was no uncommon 
thing to find mongooses and wildcats also in the 
roofs. But I write of snakes. Both the parade 
ground and the golf links were infested with 
snakes. 
The only time I have ever seen the sergeant- 
major of a regiment draw his sword was to de¬ 
fend himself from a cobra. I was superintend¬ 
ing morning signal practice from the flat top of 
the main guard house across the river. Adju¬ 
tant’s parade was taking place, and he was march¬ 
ing the battalion across the ground in quarter 
column, which is a very close formation. The 
ground was sandy with small scrub. Suddenly 
there was a wild diversion in the middle of the 
column and amid the temporary confusion the 
column divided. Into the space thus left clear 
stepped the sergeant-major, drew his sword, and 
to my surprise made a hearty cut at something. 
I was told at breakfast that a big cobra had 
suddenly appeared, and that the sergeant-major 
had swept its head off. 
One day while playing golf on the nine-hole 
links I heard, on approaching the sixth hole, a 
faint screeching, apparently issuing from the 
ground near my feet. The sound was as though 
a young rabbit was in trouble, only fainter. I 
looked about and soon saw a rat hole in the 
sandy ground from which I judged the sound 
proceeded. Closer inspection showed the head 
and shoulders of a fair-sized frog protruding 
from the jaws of a Russell's viper, the rest of 
whose body was down the hole. With my 
mashie I dug away the ground behind, exposed 
the snake and broke his back. I might add here 
that this snake is a very venemous species, and 
that probably more natives die annually from 
its bite than from those of all the other poison¬ 
ous reptiles in Burma put together. This is, I 
think, in great measure owing to the fact that 
the Russell’s viper is sluggish, seldom moving 
out of the way, as do the other snakes or most 
of them at the approach of danger. Having 
killed the viper, I very carefully rescued the 
frog. It was very much alive, though the hind 
legs were almost entirely digested, and where 
they joined the body resembled cord, tapering 
away to thin twine at the extremities. "Paralyzed 
from the hips downward” would doubtless have 
been the doctor’s verdict, but the frog could haul 
itself along on its two forelegs, the hind ones 
trailing. My servant, acting as caddie, was told 
to take it home after the game, and it lived in 
my house for three days, being fed on flies and 
moths caught round the lamps at night. This 
incident serves to show how powerful are the 
gastric juices of these snakes. 
Of the kareit, of which there are eighty-nine 
varieties bottled in the old museum, Bombay, I 
have had three experiences only, and do not 
wish for others. I was once stationed at Well¬ 
ington Barracks, ten miles from Ootacamund, in 
the Nilghiris, Madras. One day one of the 
native cooks in one of the company’s cook houses 
overturned a degchai (brass cooking bowl) on 
the shelf. A little kareit, nine inches long, was 
ready and bit the man on the tip of his left 
thumb. Now this man acted with a knowledge, 
energy and courage which are not always to 
be found among his countrymen. He ran at 
once to the meat block, took the chopper and 
lopped his left thumb clean through at the middle 
of the second joint. Putting the end of what 
had been his thumb into his mouth he made 
straight for the hospital, where the wound was 
at once cauterized and dressed. This prompt 
action, the doctor said, saved his life. His com¬ 
panions killed the snake and took it also to the 
hospital, and it was duly classified as a kareit. 
My second interview with a kareit is of a more 
doubtful character as far as the identification 
of the species is concerned. I was thamin shoot¬ 
ing in Burma, near Prome. It is the cus¬ 
tom to be driven to the shooting ground, in 
bullock carts. These are covered with the leafy 
branches of trees to hide the shooter, as these 
deer are in the habit of seeing the bullock carts 
carrying green forage, and so the shooter can 
get to his stalking ground without scaring the 
whole jungle for miles. It was early morning 
and we were just starting. I had climbed into 
my cart and was standing up in it, my right 
hand holding to a green branch to steady my¬ 
self. Suddenly I felt something cold fall across 
my wrist and remain there. I knew at once 
what it was. Karim, my shikari, was standing 
a yard below me. ‘‘Karim,” said I, not even 
turning my head, “there is a snake on my wrist; 
kill it, or knock it off at once.” Not daring to 
move, hardly to breathe, it seemed ages before 
I received such a crack on the wrist that I 
thought my arm was broken. Karim always 
carried a stout bamboo to beat either the jungle 
or the beaters, as the fancy took him, and had 
used it on my wrist. The snake fell to the 
ground and was stamped on. It was a most 
lovely apple green all over, and its eyes were 
just like rubies, but the natives could not agree 
as to whether it were venomous or not. I, 
therefore, give the snake the benefit of the 
doubt, the more readily as I have never seen 
its picture in plates in snake books, nor its like 
in the bottles of preserved snakes that I have 
come across. My third experience was thus: 
I was employed under the Indian Government 
at Nagpur in the Central Provinces, India. Re¬ 
turning on my horse from my office to my bun¬ 
galow one morning in the hot weather, I saw my 
wife in our little bit of garden. She appeared 
to be picking roses. On reaching the path near 
her, I noticed something constrained in her atti¬ 
tude. Apparently she was holding the stem of 
a rose bush at arm’s length, and her arm was 
quite rigid. I leaped off my horse and was be¬ 
side her in an instant, knowing that something 
was wrong, and guessing what it was. Looking 
along her arm I saw a red and yellow kareit, 
lapped round her wrist like some brilliant orien¬ 
tal bracelet. Fortunately, I had gloves on, though 
I do not suppose it would have made any dif¬ 
ference, as I feinted a little dash at the snake 
with my left hand and nipped his neck with my 
right, as he thrust out his wicked little head on 
the defensive. Having thrown him to the ground 
I put my foot on him. My wife said she had 
been standing like that for many minutes, afraid 
to cry out or move, just hoping that someone 
would happen along. This snake was duly iden¬ 
tified as a kareit. The reptile had climbed into 
the foliage, probably in search of flies or grubs, 
and as the bush was shaken by my wife's pull¬ 
ing the flowers, had fallen upon her wrist and 
remained there. 
I have always taken a considerable interest in 
