Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

‘It was early in the morning-not, however before the snakes, which were in a series of wire-covered boxes, were awake and lively- that we were shown” said a correspondent, “into a stone floored room some twenty feet long and twelve broad. In the boxes were the strongest and deadliest snakes in India: pythons, ophiophagi, cobras, korites, Russell snakes, and many others. The Hindoos who had charge of them were two slim, wiry, little men, nude to the waist, as most of their countrymen are. They wore neither gloves nor had any other protection, and had no instrument of any kind in the place. After showing the varied collection under their care, they proceeded to open the python cage, and one of them, putting his hand in, seized a monster serpent and threw him upon the floor close to our feet. The python objected to such treatment,and began to hiss, making at the same time a vigorous effort to rise. But the snake-keeper was waiting for this, and no sooner did that huge, shining back begin to curve than the keeper put out his hand, seizing the creature’s tail. pulled it back with a jerk. Instantly the python was powerless-hissing but unable to move: the more he struggled, the more tenaciously did the keeper hold his tail, explaining meanwhile that so long as the reptile was controlled in that fashion there was no danger of its doing mischief; then, just as its rage was becoming ungovernable, the man lifted it quickly, and with a jerk deposited it in the box. Its companion was taken out in a similar manner, and slapped and buffeted till, throughout its entire length, some twelve feet, quivered with passion, but all to no purpose; it too, was replaced in the cage, and shut up to hiss at its leisure. The fact that an ophiophagus is in the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens. London, rendered the next exhibition more interesting, although it may be doubted whether the sudden throwing into so small a room of a snake seven feet long was agreeable to the visitors. However, there was really no danger, for the venomous creature was so completely in its keeper’s power that we had no occasion to fear. One bite from the reptile, and any one of us would have been dead in five minutes, for it was exceptionally strong and lively; but it was no more able to bite us than the little mongoose caged outside the door. Up rose its head, out came its slithering tongue, its eyes dilated, its huge throat swelled, and all seemed ready for a desperate attack, when the keeper struck the reptile’s mouth with the back of his hand, and, before it could strike him, had seized it just under the head. Then it struggled, but only to get away-it had met that native before, and did not at all approve of his treatment. Its tongue might move in and out as often as it pleased, but all to no purpose, and when the cage was opened, it slunk in.-Scientific American.