Indian Antiquary Vol 07

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 59

FEBRUARY, 1878.]
ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES.
religious awe and veneration are superadded. been that men have everywhere looked with In all ages and degrees of culture, however, fear or veneration upon the snake. mere observation of a snake is sufficient, to a The Hindus have notions of their own too. very considerable extent, to account for this. They say that snakes have twenty-four legs, It is seldom, perhaps, that a snake is seen, which are invisible to the eye of men,-possibly especially by Europeans, when unsuspicious and taking this idea from centipedes. For twentyunalarmed. Notice of the neighbourhood of one six days after birth, moreover, they have no is always the signal for immediate attack and poison, but on the twenty-seventh day they pursuit. But whoever may have watched a ser- spread out their hoods to the sun and dance, pent that perceived not that it was observed and the rays striking upon the four upper fangs will know what a different feeling it excites to ripen and fill them with poison. Each of the that aroused by any other creature, however four fangs has its own name,-Kâli, Kalasti, ferocious. The presence of neither tiger, leopard, Y & man, and Y a math û ta n-all names of nor wild elephant calls up a like sort of appre- deadly meaning, and each inflicts its own pecuhension. The fixed malicious intelligence of its liar sort of wound, and the poison from each has eyes, so different from the eyes of other animals, its own way of operation. The first-nati fang the mystery of its motion, and the idea sug- leaves a mark like a cross, and a clearli xades gested of swift, unescapable deadly attack, all from the wound; the poison instilled (which convey a peculiar thrill of alarm. There were in all cases remains stationary for a hundred three things that were too wonderful even for seconds, except in the case of a bite from a the wisest of kings, and one of them was "the young snake whose venom has just been ani. way of a serpent upon & rock." Weird and mated by the sun on its twenty-seventh day, unearthly indeed it is, and the serpent-priests of when death is instantaneous) rises in the skin. Epidauros and Asia Minor watched for it as The second fang leaves a triangular wound, they sang their adjuration, “Come! come! whence a yellow fluid issues, and the venom como ! emerge from thy cavern! Swift one rises in the flesh. The fang Yaman makes a who runnest without feet, captor who takest hook-shaped mark; blood comes from it, and without hands! Sinuous as the rivers, coil the poison rises in the bones. The fourth fang orbed as the sun, black with spots of gold like inflicts a curved puncture, a whitish fluid exudes, the sky bown with stars! Like the tendrils of and the poison goes up into the marrow. Somethe vine and the convolutions of the entrails ! times a small sharp tooth grows with the four Unengendered! eater of earth! always young! fangs; a wound from this, as also from the good to men! Come! come ! come ! emerge fourth fang; Yamathûtan, is always deadly. from thy cavern !" Its secret and silent habits But it is consolatory to reflect that both are and long endurance may have inspired its au- | imaginary, and that only two poison-fangs can be cient renown for subtlety above all beasts. From found in the jaw of the worst-disposed snake. its dwelling in caves and crevices, it knew all A bite is held to be fatal on any of these places, the secrets and treasures of the under-world, the head, the lip, the chin, the breast, the navel, and often bore the choicest gems upon its fore- the palm of the hand, and the sole of the foot ; head; and when men saw the "quick cross fatal also if inflicted in a ruined house or unlightning" of the storm, or the silent wavering | inhabited place, in a temple, cemetery, or dry streamers of the evening sky, they believed that tank, amongst reeds or bamboos, near a banyan serpents were in the gods' world too. Because or tamarind tree, by an idol-car or cross-ways; the canning of all creatures of the fields, woods, at morning, evening, or during sleep. Again, a and waters was gathered together in the snake, wound is fatal if, after biting, the snake spreads any one who tasted its flesh or blood forthwith its hood and dances, lies motionless, or chases knew the speech of all fowls, and became wise the man: also if the wound bleeds and the limbs in the ways of beast-kind. So it has always tremble, it will be fatal; or if the eyes sink and
1 When it is considered that the deaths from snake bites officially reported in 1869 in Malabar alone were of men 186, of cattle 625, and the total number of deaths of men in British India in the same year were 11,416; that such
totals are concluded from very inadequate returns, and that it is more than probable the annual deaths from bites ate not fewer than 20,000, another great and obvious CRUSO for the dread of serpents will be recognized.