COBRA, the ordinary Urda name of the Naga. genus of venomous colubritie snakes of the family Elapidm. There is only, one species, the Naga tripudians, which has a moderate body, with rather short tail. It has a small or moderate eye, with a round pupil, a poison fang in front of the maxil lary, which is butdittle• moveable or erectile, and only one tooth behind. The anterior ribs are elongate and erectile, and the skin of the neck is dilatable. Wheu the cobra rises in play,.or for amusement, it spreads out the skin of the neck, from which it gets the Spanish name of cobra di capello, in English the hooded snake.. ha bite, if the poison be fairly in, is almost certain death. It is said that the poison can be combated by injecting pota.sh into the veins, but, owing to the rapidity of the poison's action, this, even if true, is valueless. Several instances have occurred of grown-up tnen recovering frorn the bites of the chain, etc., or Russel's viper (Daboia elegans), simply by applying ligatures above tho wound, and burning the punctures with a live coal; but the after-swelling was very painful, and lasted for some months. The cobra and chain viper are the conutioneat and deadliest. Notwithatanding this, the natives of Ceylon do not kill the cobra when caught, but enclose it in a mat bag with some boiled rice for food, and place it thus in a flowing stream. In Gujerat tlw Hindus do not kill.this or any other snake. There are two varieties.
Var. a. The spectacled or binosellate cobra has its neck, on the steel-brown skin, marked with a white, black-edged cl -1 enclosing at either extremity a black ocellus. This is only seen when the hood is expanded. It is found in Southern India and in Burma (?). It grows to 5j feet.
Var. b. The monocellate, or one-marked cobra. has a plain white ocellita, with blaelc centre and margin, and grows to 4 feet in length. It is the cobm of Central India and Burma.
The fangs of the cobra are not perforated like those of vipers, but they have a groove or slit right down the anterior part of the fang, and although the sides of the groove- may oftsn meet in close contact about Atte anterior centre of the tooth, and form a sort of a channel, yet they never join or amalptnate,together. The fang,s of cobras are fixed to sthe.,..maxillary bones, while those of vipers are erec,tile." • Permanganate of potash has been recommended in cobra bites. When permanganate was mixed with cobra poison aud hypodermically injected, no fatal result followed, although a fatal dose of cobm poison was used, and the mixture injected into the vein. It is supposed that the mongoose is not affected by qua cobra poison.
In the mythologies of India, the cobra figures as a wotecting agent, spreading its hood over the ling,ara and over royalty. The cobra is worshipped by 41 Hindus ; and its form, aa au idol, with three to nine heads, in stone or brass, may be everywhere:seen in India, oft,en bending over the idol of thq litigant. The cobra is often personified in Inclian story. In many parts of Western Ittdia,.after,killing a cobra, the non-A ryait races give it all the honours of a cremation, assuring it, with many protestations, that they are guiltless of its blood; that they slew it by order of their master ; or that they had no other way to prevent its biting the chickens-s—:Nrcho/$0s.