Fig. 167.–Map showing the distribution of the Elapine Snakes.
Naja.–The pair of large and grooved poison-fangs are separated by an interspace from one to three small, faintly grooved teeth near the posterior end of the maxillaries. The scales are smooth and without pits, and are arranged in fifteen to twenty-five oblique rows on the trunk, although more occur in the region of the neck; the vertebral row is not enlarged. The head is but slightly distinct from the neck. Each nostril lies between two nasals and the internasal. The sub-caudals form two rows. The pupil is round. The neck-region can be expanded into a hood by the spreading and moving headwards of the ribs. Several species in Southern Asia and in Africa.
Fig. 168.–Naja tripudians (the Cobra). × ⅕.
N. tripudians (the "Cobra").–The coloration varies much. The typical form is yellowish to dark brown with a black and white spectacle-mark on the dorsal side of the hood, and with a large black and white spot on each side of the corresponding under surface. Other specimens are uniform pale brown to blackish grey, without any markings on the hood. The Cobra is widely distributed, from Transcaspia to China and to the Malay Islands; in the Himalayas it ascends to about 8000 feet above the level of the sea. Very large specimens are said to attain more than 6 feet in length, but a cobra of 5 feet, inclusive of the tail of 9 inches, is considered large. The Cobra prefers places which afford it a convenient hole to retire into; for instance, deserted hills of termites, ruins, heaps of stones and stacks of wood, and it has the disagreeable habit, like the harmless Rat-snake, Zamenis mucosus, of making itself at home in inhabited houses, probably attracted by the rats. Its chief food consists of small Vertebrates;–frogs, lizards, rats, occasionally fishes and small birds. It drinks much, and hunts chiefly in the late afternoon and in the evening, although it possesses a round pupil. It avoids hot sunshine. Many observations show that the cobras live in pairs, otherwise they do not take much notice of each other or of other kinds of snakes. The female lays about a dozen soft-shelled eggs as large as those of pigeons.
This cobra is used by Indian conjurers. The "dance" is the habit of these snakes of erecting themselves, when agitated, upon the hinder third or quarter of their length, whilst they spread out the hood and sway the head and neck to the right and left, always in an attitude ready for striking. They are docile and by nature not vicious. Most of the performing cobras have their teeth drawn, and they then know well that they cannot bite. They only strike at the hand, just as uninjured specimens soon avoid biting into the iron rod with which they are lifted up in menageries. The drawing of the teeth is an operation which has to be repeated, since reserve-teeth soon take the place of the lost pair.
I cannot refrain from relating an abstract of a ridiculous episode which happened in the Munich Aquarium in the year 1882. One of six specimens of the African species Naja haje was missing. The police closed the establishment, which during the following eight days was turned inside out without any other effect than that two other, harmless, snakes were discovered. Twice the building was fumigated with sulphur, until the Cobra was at last found suffocated, fifteen days after the beginning of the search. This snake caused the owner of the Aquarium a loss of nearly £1500. But the cruel joke was, that during the commotion the man who had collected and sold the six snakes declared upon oath that their teeth had been so well drawn and the germs of possible reserve-teeth had been so thoroughly destroyed that the snakes were rendered absolutely harmless. But he was not believed, in spite of a commission of professors and doctors appointed, who experimented upon the remaining five Cobras with sulphur and did not find any poison-fangs, "although the mouth was probed and poked into as far down as the larynx."
Cobras have quite a number of enemies. Peafowl and Jungle-cocks are said to be partial to young snakes; pigs eat them greedily, and are to a certain extent immune against their bite. The same applies, according to the most recent observations, to the famous Mongoos. Sir E. Tennent, in his Natural History of Ceylon, quoted several times in the present book, makes the following remarks about the immunity of this little creature:–
"I have found universally that the natives of Ceylon attach no credit to the European story of the Mongoos (Herpestes griseus) resorting to some plant, which no one has yet succeeded in identifying, as an antidote against the bite of the venomous serpents on which it preys. There is no doubt that, in its conflicts with the cobra and other poisonous snakes, which it attacks with as little hesitation as the harmless ones, it may be seen occasionally to retreat, and even to retire into the jungle, and, it is added, to eat some vegetable.... A number of plants, such as the Ophioxylon serpentinum and Ophiorhiza mungos, the Aristolochia indica, the Mimosa octandria, and others, have each been asserted to be the Ichneumon's specific.... If the Ichneumon were inspired by that courage which would result from the consciousness of security, it would be so indifferent to the bite of the serpent, that we might conclude that, both in its approaches and its assault, it would be utterly careless as to the precise mode of attack. Such, however, is far from being the case; and next to its audacity, nothing can be more surprising than the adroitness with which it escapes the spring of the snake under a due sense of danger, and the cunning with which it makes its arrangements to leap upon the back and fasten its teeth in the head of the cobra. It is this display of instinctive ingenuity that Lucan celebrates where he paints the Ichneumon diverting the attention of the Asp by the motion of his bushy tail, and then seizing it in the midst of its confusion. See Pharsalia, lib. iv. verses 729-734."
There is a widespread belief in the efficacy of "Snake-stones," which are generally pieces of charred bone, well polished, occasionally pieces of chalk or some similar porous substance, which, if pressed upon the bleeding wound, are supposed to absorb the poison. Snake-charmers profess to prepare such "stones," and to preserve the composition as a secret. The manufacture is a lucrative trade. The Boers bought them, imported from India, at high prices. Mr. Selous saw one, or heard of one, that was kept as an heirloom. Snake-stones are also made, and used, in Mexico, of charred hartshorn; they are called "piedras ponsonas."