custom of other snakes, he will not flee on hearing a footstep. When
anyone approaches he lies more still than ever, not even a movement of
his head betraying him. He is so like the colour of the ground, he hopes
he will be passed unseen; and he is slow and lethargic in his movements,
and so is easy to kill when once detected. As a Burman said, 'If he sees
you first, he kills you; if you see him first, you kill him.'

In this district no Burman hesitates a moment in killing a viper when
he has the chance. Usually he has to do it in self-defence. This viper
is terribly feared, as over a hundred persons a year die here by his
bite. He is so hated and feared that he has become an outcast from the
law that protects all life.

But with other snakes it is not so. There is the hamadryad, for
instance. He is a great snake about ten to fourteen feet long, and he is
the only snake that will attack you first. He is said always to do so,
certainly he often does. One attacked me once when out quail-shooting.
He put up his great neck and head suddenly at a distance of only five or
six feet, and was just preparing to strike, when I literally blew his
head off with two charges of shot.

You would suppose he was vicious enough to be included with the
Russell's viper in the category of the exceptions, but no. Perhaps he is
too rare to excite such fierce and deadly hate as makes the Burman
forget his law and kill the viper. However it may be, the Burman is not
ready to kill the hamadryad. A few weeks ago a friend of mine and myself
came across two little Burman boys carrying a jar with a piece of broken
tile over it. The lads kept lifting up the tile and peeping in, and then
putting the tile on again in a great hurry, and their actions excited
our curiosity. So we called them to come to us, and we looked into the
jar. It was full of baby hamadryads. The lads had found a nest of them
in the absence of the mother, who would have killed them if she had
been there, and had secured all the little snakes. There were seven of
them.

We asked the boys what they intended to do with the snakes, and they
answered that they would show them to their friends in the village. 'And
then?' we asked. And then they would let them go in the water. My friend
killed all the hamadryads on the spot, and gave the boys some coppers,
and we went on. Can you imagine this happening anywhere else? Can you
think of any other schoolboys sparing any animal they caught