Cobras and vipers keep up an ancient feud; during a certain hot season a child was playing inside a vessel full of water and a thirsty cobra drank of it without hurting the child; a thirsty viper met the cobra and was told where water was to be found on the viper’s promise that it will not injure the child; as the viper was drinking the water, the child playfully struck it and the viper bit him to death; the cobra who had followed the viper killed it for breaking its promise.
The green whip snake (ehetullâ) attacks the eyes of those who approach it and the shadow of the brown whip snake (hena kandaya) makes one lame or paralytic.
A rat snake seldom bites, but if it does, the wound ends fatally only if cowdung is trampled on.
The aharakukkâ (tropidonoms stolichus) lives in groups of seven and when one is killed the others come in search of it.
A mapila (dipsas forstenii) reaches its victim on the floor by several of them linking together and hanging from the roof.
The legendary kobô snake loses a joint of its tail every time it expends its poison, till one joint is left, when it assumes wings and the head of a toad; with the last bite both the victim and the snake die.
CHAPTER IV.
HUMAN BEINGS.
It is considered unlucky to lie down when the sun is setting; to sleep with the head towards the west or with the hands between the thighs; to clasp one’s hands across the head or to eat with the head resting on a hand; to strike the plate with the fingers after taking a meal; to give to another’s hand worthless things like chunam or charcoal without keeping them on something, and for a female to have a hairy person.