he refectory one evening for dinner we saw a large
snake vanish out of the back door, and we found it curled up behind
the water-butt.

It is impossible to get reliable local information as to which of the
snakes are poisonous or not. If you ask an Indian about the character
of any snake he always answers, "Very bad." But it is the cobra which
is really an unpleasant creature to have any dealings with. Most other
snakes will try and slink into a corner, or hide up. But the cobra, if
cornered, shows fight and becomes formidable. He raises himself up a
foot or two, puffs out his mantle, sways his head about as if he was
taking aim, and strikes with great force to some distance, according
to his size. I do not know if there are any instances recorded of
recovery from the bite of a cobra, but if so, they are exceedingly
rare.

Early one morning we found a cobra in a sleepy state, just outside one
of the church doors. By his swollen condition it was evident that he
was digesting his last meal. It was easy to despatch him with a long
bamboo, which we keep for cobras. But at the first blow he had still
energy just to raise his head into the fighting attitude, when he
looks most forbidding. We found inside him a frog, dead but otherwise
in good preservation, which accounted for his distended and sleepy
state. One day, just after Evensong, when the people were coming out
of church, one of the boys heard a hiss, and saw a cobra in the angle
of a buttress. The long bamboo was again equal to the occasion.

The village schoolmaster, returning in the dark with his family after
a day's holiday, heard a hiss as he opened his house door, and he saw
a snake glide down the verandah. But it was too dark to see whether it
went away, or whether it went into one of the other rooms. The process
of investigation was rather an embarrassing one. The door of the next
room was so situated that a view of the interior could not be got
without going inside, and the snake might have hidden behind the door.
After making loud demonstrations in the doorway with the bamboo, I
ventured in cautiously, and by the light of a lantern which the master
held, we saw at the further end of the room under a cot a large
cobra, with its head raised and slowly waving about, according to its
uncanny custom. As it was probable that it would make for the door if
attacked, because there was no other exit, I at once pinned it against
the wall with the long bamboo. A fierc