THE HOODED SERPENT, OR COBRA DI CAPELLO, (Naja tripudians,)
Called by the Indians the Nagao, is from three to eight feet long, with two long fangs in the upper jaw. It has a broad neck, and a mark of dark brown on the forehead; which, when viewed frontwise, looks like a pair of spectacles; but behind, like the head of a cat. The eyes are fierce and full of fire; the head is small, and the nose flat, though covered with very large scales, of a yellowish ash-colour: the skin is white, and the large tumour on the neck is flat and covered with oblong smooth scales. This serpent is extremely dreaded by the British residents in India, as its bite has hitherto been found to be incurable, and the sufferer generally dies in half an hour.
Of this kind are the dancing-snakes, which are carried in baskets throughout Hindoostan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people, who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful motion of the head; erecting about half their length from the ground, and following the music with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan’s neck. It is a well-attested fact, that, when a house is infested with these snakes, and some other of the coluber genus, which destroy poultry and small domestic animals, as also by the larger serpents of the boa tribe, the musicians are sent for; who, by playing on a flageolet, find out their hiding places, and charm them to destruction: for no sooner do the snakes hear the music, than they come softly from their retreat, and are easily taken. I imagine these musical snakes were known in Palestine, from the Psalmist comparing the ungodly to the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely.
THE SNAKE, (Coluber natrix,)