Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/321

Rh listens it is blind. If it uses its eyes it is deaf to all sounds. The snake charmer plays his pipes by the side of the white ants' nest, where the cobra has its lodging. It hears the strains of music in the dark cell and is attracted by the sweet sounds. Still listening it issues from its hole, blind to the presence of its hereditary enemy, man. The music draws it until it is within reach of his grasp. Then comes the rude awakening with returning sight. It is seized by the neck too close to the head for it to turn and bite. Its fangs are drawn and its poison-bags destroyed. The warm dry cell in the ants' nest is exchanged for the cold draughty prison-basket, and the unhappy snake meets with an ignoble end in an unequal fight with the snake charmer's pet mongoose. Sympathy is surely with the music-loving serpent !

The snake charmers are clever in their handling of the snakes and seldom get bitten. They are supposed to render themselves immune to the poison by inoculation. Nevertheless, they prove vulnerable sometimes. A snake charmer, who practised the trade of conjuring as well, was bitten by one of his own cobras and died from the effects. It transpired that the man was intoxicated at the time. He was handling his pet carelessly and must have hurt it somehow.

Natives divide the ophidia into castes. They use the four original divisions which were applied to themselves–Brahmin, Kshattriya, Vaisya, and Sudra. They believe that the snakes observe their caste distinctions as rigidly as human beings; and that they never break their caste by interbreeding, or by sharing the same hole with one of lower caste. The cobra and the bis-cobra, the most dangerous of the hamadryads, are of Brahmin caste. The bis-cobra prefers the jungle to the cantonment, which is fortunate for the gardener, as it is said to be of rare courage, and will act on the offensive at the very