The incantation of serpents has usually been attributed to the power of music, and a late writer reinalks that 'it is so strange that many have denied the fact, while others have asserted it to be a deception.' The general belief, how ever, is that serpents are extremely sensitive of impressions from musical notes or modulations, under the influence of which they wreathe their bodies from feelings of pleasure, saline to these graceful contortions and undulating movements, the charmer, Nvlio plays on a pipe or some simple instrument, adapts the time.' This is the common theory,—that serpents are rendered docile by music ; but .31r. Ala.son has seen the cobra dance in imitation of its Burmese master, while he sat upon his haunches before it, making the motions with his body and hands that he wished the snakes to imitate, and which it did perfectly Nvithout any music Nvhatever, or any other sound except an occasional authoritative hay ! A pair of cobras kept perfect time with their piaster, while no sounds were uttered, and allowed him to handle them as lie wished. At his command they danced, and at his command they lay gracefully down as if asleep. The Burmese usually put a wild one, which they secure when half or two-thirds grown, with a piactised tame one. These will dance and wreathe themselves at their maker's pleasure. Sometimes darting at him, but at that moment he straightens himself up, with his eyes fastened upon the snake's eyes, and in a gruff voice com mands them to perform. Following his tnotions, they stand alinoat upright svith their hoods dilated and their colours all in play as they dance; now swift, now slow, now approaching, now reced ing ; and he has seen the younger in his receding movements give unequivocal toketut of desiring to make his exit, but on hearing his master's call he turned again, though evidently with more reluct ance than the old actors. The power of effecting all this is certainly attributable neither to magic nor music. It niust, he thinka, be ascribed to fear, and to a very simple principle, the power of imitation,—a power possessed by different animals in different degrees. Serpents are by no means the least docile of the anunal kingdom ; nor are cobras the most intractable of serpents, the cobm and the bungarus being the favourites with the snake-chartners.
A large python, usually called a boa, is not uncommon in Tenasserim. Mr. Mason had seen the head of one that was killed by a drove of hogs, Nvhose svhole length measured 18 feet, and the natives say they grow much larger. The Karelia have an apothegm that the largest python can swallow a full-grosvn buck rusa or sambur deer, horns and all, without inconvenience. They are often seen coiled up among the branches of trees on the banks of streams in the interior, where they are frequently noosed by Karens, who regard them as valuable food. He has seen a Karen
seize one 9 feet long by the tail in the water, and with the aid of his associates succeed in capturing him.
Hypnale nepa. Found in Ceylon, but also in the Peninsula of Southern India, the Animallay mountains. The earawala is much dreaded, although its bite is but exceptionally fatal to man, and in such cases death does not occur before tho lapse of some days.
The Vipers, or Viperidx, inhabit the Old World and Australia, and are thoroughly terrestrial snakes.
Daboia Russellii is a native of Ceylon and of the Peninsula of India, the Animallay moun tains, Waltair, Bombay, and Almom (5500 feet elevation), the Himalayas, in Kulu, at 3400 feet. Length 50 inches, tail measuring 7 inches; it is thoroughly terrestrial, feeding chiefly on mice. It is one of the most common venomous snakes, and, on account of its size and nocturnal habits, more dangerous than the Trimeresures and Ilyp nales. The far-famed, dreaded Cobm monil, or Cobra manilla of some, seems merely the young of this species. The old orthogmphy is monil, which simply means a chain or necklace; and whoever looks at the markings of this snake, itecially of the young one, must be struck with the resem blance thereof to a necklace.
Vipera echis, Schlegel; V. noratta, Shaw, Russell. Kuttavyrien, TAM. This little anake is very common in the Camatic. Jerdon doubts that its bite would prove fatal to man. A dog bitten by one recovered. Of all the venomous land-snakes met with in S,outhern India, the only ones at all common are the cobns, the chain viper (Vipera Bussellii), the Bungarus eandidus, and the little Vipera echis. Most of the others are peenliai to the forests of India. Trigono cephali are not usually fatal. Jerdon had known several cases of bites by Trigonocephalus Mala baricus and Tr. nepa, and none proved fatal.
Eatrachians are a sub-class of reptiles. Mois ture is as necessary for batrachians as food and air, hence they are found only in damp places or in the neighbourhood of water. When they dive, the lungs are emptied, and the respiration remains interrupted for one or two hours, after which time the animal is compelled to rise to the surface in order to breathe. Many batrachians live at some distance from water ; all, however, as far as is known at present, enter it at the season of pro pagation. The males have also generally a dis tinctly more slender form than the females. The eggs are impregnated the moment they are deposited by the female in the water. The young ones, or tadpoles, have a thick ovate body without legs, terminating in a long, strong, coniprcssed tail, which serves as an organ of locomotion in the water. The development is about a hundred days in the European Rana temporaria, but several years elapse before the young perfect batrachian attains its full size. None are poisonous.