e sun. It is widely
distributed, from Transcaspia to China and to the Malay Islands, and is
found in all parts of India, from Ceylon to the Himalayas up to about
8000 ft. above the level of the sea.

Closely allied is _N. haje_, the common hooded cobra of all Africa, the
_Spy-slange_, i.e. spitting snake of the Boers.

The cobra is justly regarded as one of the most deadly of the Indian
Thanatophidia. Many thousand deaths are caused annually by this
unfortunately common species, but it is difficult to obtain accurate
statistics. The bite of a vigorous cobra will often prove fatal in a few
minutes, and as there is no practicable antidote to the poison, it is
only in rare instances that such mechanical expedients as cauterizing,
constriction or amputation can be applied with sufficient promptitude to
prevent the virus from entering the circulation. Owing to a small reward
offered by the Indian government for the head of each poisonous snake,
great numbers of cobras have been destroyed; but only low-caste Hindus
will engage in such work, the cobra being regarded by the natives
generally with superstitious reverence, as a divinity powerful to
injure, and therefore to be propitiated; and thus oftentimes when found
in their dwellings this snake is allowed to remain, and is fed and
protected. "Should fear," says Sir J. Fayrer, "and perhaps the death of
some inmate bitten by accident, prove stronger than superstition, it may
be caught, tenderly handled, and deported to some field, where it is
released and allowed to depart in peace, not killed" (_Thanatophidia of
India_). Great numbers, especially of young cobras, are killed by the
adjutant birds and by the mungoos--a small mammal which attacks it with
impunity, apparently not from want of susceptibility to the poison, but
by its dexterity in eluding the bite of the cobra. Mere scratching or
tearing does not appear to be sufficient to bring the poison from the
glands; it is only when the fangs are firmly implanted by the jaws being
pressed together that the virus enters the wound, and in those
circumstances it has been shown by actual experiment that the mungoos,
like all other warm-blooded animals, succumbs to the poison. In the case
of reptiles, the cobra poison takes effect much more slowly, while it
has been proved to have no effect whatever on other venomous serpents.

In the Egyptian hieroglyphics the cobra occurs constantly with the body
erect and hood expanded; its na