a 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.[3] 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 de capello voluntarily taking
considerable excursions by sea. When the "Wellington," a government
vessel employed in the conservancy of the pearl banks, was anchored
about a quarter of a mile from land, in the bay of Koodremale, a cobra
was seen, about an hour before sunset, swimming vigorously towards the
ship. It came within twelve yards, when the sailors assailed it with
billets of wood and other missiles, and forced it to return to land. The
following morning they discovered the track which it had left on the
shore, and traced it along the sand till it disappeared in the
jungle.[4] On a later occasion, in the vicinity of the same spot, when
the "Wellington" was lying at some distance from the shore, a cobra was
found and killed on board, where it could only have gained access by
climbing up the cable. It was first discovered by a sailor, who felt the
chill as it glided over his foot.[5]

[Footnote 1: A Singhalese work, the _Sarpa Doata_, quoted in the _Ceylon
Times_, January, 1857, enumerates four species of the cobra;--the
_raja_, or king; the _velyander_, or trader; the _baboona_, or hermit;
and the _goore_, or agriculturist. The young cobras, it says, are not
venomous till after the thirteenth day, when they shed their coat for
the first time.]

[Footnote 2: Coryphodon Blumenbachii. WOLF, in his interesting story of
his _Life and Adventures in Ceylon_, mentions that rat-snakes were often
so domesticated by the natives as to feed at their table. He says: "I
once saw an example of this in the house of a native. It being meal
time, he called his snake, which immediately came forth from the roof
under which he and I were sitting. He gave it victuals from his own
dish, which the snake took of itself from off a fig-leaf that was laid
for it, and ate along with its host. When it had eaten its fill, he gave
it a kiss and bade it go to its hole."

Since the above was written, Major Skinner, writing to me 12th Dec.
1858, mentions the still more remarkable case of the domestication of
the cobra de capello in Ceylon. "Did you ever hear," he says, "of tame
cobras being kept and