The Colubrine Venemous Snakes.
These are comprised under the one family, Elapidæ, all of which have an erect, immovable, grooved, or perforated fang in the fore-part of the maxillary bone. There is little in their external appearance to distinguish them from the harmless Colubrine Snakes, to which they are more nearly akin, in all but their poison-fangs, than they are to the Rattlesnakes and Vipers; yet some of the most poisonous of Ophidians appertain to this family, as exemplified by the well-known Cobras of the Indian region and of Africa, and also by some of the worst Snakes that inhabit Australia. In the colony of Victoria alone as many as ten species of Snakes are known, one only of which, Morelia variegata, is harmless; and one only of them, the formidable Death-adder (Acanthopis antarctica), belongs to the sub-order of the Viperine Snakes. The rest are included among the Colubriform Venemous Snakes, and most of the accidents from poisonous Snakes in that colony are due to what is there known as the Carpet Snake, Hoplocephalus curtus, while the Snake that bears the same name in the adjacent colony of New South Wales is the innocuous Morelia spilotes, which is a small Serpent of the family of Pythonidæ. Of the total number of Snakes known in all Australia, by far the greater number are venemous, which is the reverse of what occurs elsewhere. Only about five species, however, are really dangerous throughout the great island-continent, for in many of them the poison is by no means virulent. Thus, of Diemansia psammophis, which sometimes exceeds four feet in length, Mr. Krefft remarks that "its bite does not cause any more irritation than the sting of a bee." Also, that "the bite of Hoplocephalus variegatus is not sufficiently strong to endanger the life of a man. I have been wounded by it several times," writes Mr. Krefft, "and experienced no bad symptoms beyond a slight headache; the spot where the fang entered turning blue to about the size of a shilling for a few days." Again, of Brachysoma diadema, "this very handsome little Snake is venemous, but never offers to bite, and may be handled with impunity." Far otherwise, however, is the venom of Hoplocephalus curtus, and also of some others. H. curtus is one of the worst Snakes of Australia, where it inhabits the more temperate parts of the country from east to west. Its bite is almost as deadly as that of the Indian Cobra, to which it is, indeed, considerably allied. "A good-sized Dog bitten became paralyzed within three minutes, and was dead in fifty minutes afterwards; a Goat died in thirty-five minutes; a Porcupine Ant-eater (Echidna hystrix) lived six hours; and a common Tortoise, an animal which will live a day with its head cut off, died in five hours after being bitten." The H. superbus replaces it in Tasmania.
The Cobras (Naja) are widely known, alike from the virulence of their poison, and for their remarkable dilatable disk or "hood" on the nape, the ribs which support this hood being much elongated. Two species are commonly recognised, the Cobra di capella of Southern Asia (Naja tripudians), and the Asp (N. haje) of Africa; but there are marked local varieties of both species, and the N. sputatrix of the Malay countries should probably be recognised as a third species. Those of India, with Ceylon, have a mark like a pair of spectacles upon the hood, while those of Burmah and the neighbouring countries eastward have only an oval black spot upon it. In India the commonest colour of this formidable reptile is uniform brown, though many are of a pale yellowish straw colour, and there are others of every shade between that and black. It grows to a length of about five feet, seldom more. "Almost every writer on the natural productions of the East Indies," remarks Dr. Günther, "has contributed to the natural history of this Snake, which has been surrounded by such a number of fabulous stories, that their repetition and contradiction would fill a volume." It is very generally diffused over the Indian region, though, as Mr. Theobald notices, from its nocturnal habits it is less often seen than many harmless species. "This Snake is, I believe," he adds, "of inoffensive habits, unless irritated, but is, of course, a dangerous neighbour to have in a house.[13] Not only in Burmah, where the respect for animal life is greatest, but in India also I have known a Cobra enticed or forced into an earthen jar, and then carried by two men across a river, or some distance from the village, and liberated. Dr. Günther remarks that, 'singularly enough, it has never been obtained in the valley of Nepâl.' This is very easily accounted for," continues Mr. Theobald, "since few would venture to kill a Cobra, even for scientific purposes, in the rigorously Hindu state of Nepâl. In British India, decent Hindus will not kill a Cobra; and if one has taken up his abode in a house, he is permitted to remain, or else carefully inveigled into an earthen-pot, and carried away as described. Of course only the orthodox Hindu is so careful to abstain from injuring the Cobra, and their reverential feeling is now perhaps rather the exception than the rule, though probably as strong as ever in Nepâl." A fine example of the still more formidable gigantic Cobra (Hamadryas elaps), to be noticed presently, was obtained from an earthen pot which had floated out to sea.
The late Sir J. Emerson Tennent mentions that "the Cinghalese remark that if one Cobra be destroyed near a house, its companion is almost certain to be discovered immediately after—a popular belief which I had an opportunity of verifying on more than one occasion. Once, when a Snake of this description was killed in a bath of the Government House at Colombo, its mate was found in the same spot the day after; and again, at my own stables, a Cobra of five feet long having fallen into the well, which was too deep to permit its escape, its companion, of the same size, was found the same morning in an adjoining drain.[14] On this occasion the Snake, which had been several hours in the well, swam with ease, raising its head and hood above water; and instances have repeatedly occurred of the Cobra di capella voluntarily taking considerable excursions by sea" (or by rivers, as the writer has personally witnessed).]
Cobras are much dreaded, for they instil the most subtle poison into their bites. Their manners are very singular. When at rest the neck of the animal is no larger in diameter than the head; but when under the influence of passion and irritation the neck swells at the same time that the animal raises the front part of his body vertically, holding this part straight and rigid as an iron bar. The lower part of the body rests upon the ground, and serves as a support to the upper part, which is movable and capable of locomotion. This faculty of dilating the neck is as striking a trait in the organization of the Cobras, as the rattle is in Crotalus. The ancient inhabitants of Egypt adored them; they attributed to their protection the preservation of grain, and allowed them to live in the midst of their cultivated fields. The Cobra is no longer an object of adoration in the East, but is held sacred by many people, and it serves in nearly every country of Asia as a very curious spectacle; being the Serpent chiefly used by snake-charmers in these countries, terrible as it seems to us.
Fig. 17.—Snake-charmers.
Fig. 18.—Hooded Snake.
The action of the snake-charmer is as follows: he takes in his hand a root, the virtue of which is supposed to preserve him from the venemous effects of the bite of the Cobra. Drawing the reptile from the cage in which he keeps it confined, he irritates it by presenting a stick to it; the animal immediately erects the fore part of its body, swells its neck, opens its jaws, extends its forked tongue, its eyes glitter, and it begins to hiss. Then a sort of battle commences between the Serpent and the charmer; the latter, striking up a monotonous sort of song, opposes his closed fist to his enemy, sometimes using his right hand and sometimes his left. The animal fixes its eyes upon the fist which threatens it, follows all its movements, balances its head and body, and thus simulates a kind of dance. Other charmers obtain from the Cobra an alternating and cadenced movement of the neck by the help of sounds which are drawn from a whistle or small flute. It is said that these mysterious jugglers are able, by some sympathetic action they possess, to plunge these dangerous enemies into a sort of lethargy and death-like rigidity, and to bring them at will out of this momentary torpor. It is certain, at any rate, that they handle these animals, whose bite is extremely dangerous, with considerable impunity, and without having in any way neutralized or intercepted the venom. It is supposed by some that these charmers take the precaution of exhausting the venom of the Cobra every day by forcing it to bite something several times before exhibiting it. It is also certain that they more frequently draw the poison fangs—a wound from which can kill in the course of two or three hours.