Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics. A. Calmette
how to capture it, and tear out its fangs by making it bite a bundle of rags.
This species rarely lives more than six or eight months in captivity, and is quite untamable. It is fond of bathing, and remains in the water for hours together.
“The Ancient Egyptians,” write Duméril and Bibron,3 “are known to have worshipped the Naja, which they regarded as the protector of their crops. They allowed it to live and multiply among the cultivated lands, which they apparently entrusted to the care of their tutelary guardian, recognising that this snake freed them from the ravages of the rats, the immense number of which otherwise caused terrible destruction and even actual famine. It was, therefore, from motives of gratitude that the Egyptian Cobra was venerated in this way; that its image was hung up in the temples; that its skin was embalmed; and that its effigy, so easy to recognise and to reproduce roughly, was graven or sculptured on the stones of their monuments. This is the explanation of the fact that paintings representing N. haje are frequently reproduced in hieroglyphics and on Egyptian sarcophagi.”
The Naja was the tutelary deity of the temples, whose duty was to prevent the profane from entering. Thus, in one of the crypts of Denderah we find represented Serpent-genie, figures with a head like that of a Naja supported by the body of a man, with the hands armed with enormous cutlasses (Mariette, Dendérah, p. 91, 1875).
(2) N. flava.—Same arrangement of scales. Neck dilatable. 200–227 ventrals; 50–67 subcaudals.
Colour very variable, yellowish, reddish, brown, or black, uniform or with light spots; sometimes a black transverse band on the neck.
Total length, 1,470 millimetres; tail 230.
Habitat: South Africa.
(3) N. melanoleuca.—Coloration very variable. Sides of the head yellow or whitish; labial shields tinged with black on the posterior edge.
Total length, 2,400 millimetres; tail 400.
Habitat: Tropical Africa.
(4) N. nigricollis.—Third supralabial shield the deepest, sixth and seventh not in contact with the postoculars; 183–228 ventral scales; 55–68 subcaudals.
Coloration very variable; lower surface of the neck with a black transverse bar.
Total length, 2,000 millimetres; tail 300.
Habitat: From Senegambia and Upper Egypt to Angola and the Transvaal.
(5) N. anchietæ.—Scales in 17 rows on the neck and on the body; 181–192 ventrals; 52–62 subcaudals.
Colour blackish or brown above; end of snout and cheeks yellow; belly yellow or pale brown, with or without black cross-bar under the neck.
Total length, 1,800 millimetres; tail 340.
Habitat: Angola and Ovamboland.
(6) N. goldii.—Eyes large, two-thirds the length of the snout in adults. Scales in 15 rows on the neck and on the body; 194—195 ventrals; 88 subcaudals.
Colour black, uniform, or with transverse series of small whitish spots; cheeks and end of snout white, with a black border at the margin of the shields; belly white in front, black behind; subcaudal scales black.
Total length, 1,750 millimetres.
Habitat: Lower Niger.
(d) Sepedon.
Maxillary bones projecting considerably beyond the palatines, with a pair of large poison-fangs; no other maxillary teeth. Head not distinct from neck; eyes of moderate size, with round pupils; nostril between two nasal shields and an internasal. Body cylindrical; scales oblique, keeled, in 19 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail moderate; subcaudal scales in 2 rows.
S. hæmachates (The Spitting Snake, or Ring Hals Slang).—This snake, which is about 700 millimetres in length, is of a bluish-brown colour, with numerous narrow, undulating and denticulate cross-bands of yellow or yellowish-white. The throat is black or dark red; the belly grey.
It is met with throughout West, East, and South Africa, as far as the Cape of Good Hope, where it is very common. It lives among bushes in sandy places, where the ground is full of the holes of rats, moles, and small rodents, upon which it feeds. It is very active and exhibits great ferocity.
Natives at the Cape declare that this snake is able to project its venom to a distance of more than a yard, especially if the wind is blowing in the same direction, and that, if the poison happens to enter the eye, the inflammation that results therefrom often leads to loss of sight (Smith).
As to this, a very definite statement is given by Bavay,4 on the authority of Le Naour:—
“While hunting in Dahomey,” wrote Le Naour to Bavay, “I thrice met with the snake called the Spitter. On two occasions my dog was struck in both eyes by the liquid projected by the reptile. Immediately (less than two minutes afterwards), symptoms of conjunctivitis manifested themselves, with considerable swelling of the pupils; the conjunctivitis seemed as though it were going to be very serious, and yielded only after twelve days’ treatment with boracic lotion, aided by a few cauterisations with sulphate of copper.
“During my sojourn at Porto-Novo, a store-keeper at the Dogba trading station was a victim of the Spitter. While working at his store he received in his eye a jet of liquid, which produced violent conjunctivitis.”
(e) Aspidelaps.
Maxillary bones extending forwards beyond the palatines, as in Sepedon, with a pair of large poison-fangs; no other maxillary teeth. Head slightly distinct from the neck. Eyes of moderate size, with round or vertically elliptic pupils. Rostral shield very large, detached on the sides. Body cylindrical; scales oblique, smooth or keeled, in 19–23 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail short, obtuse; subcaudal scales in 2 rows.
(1) A. lubricus.—146–167 ventral scales; 20–28 subcaudals.
Colour orange or red, with black rings; a black bar below the eyes; upper surface of head sometimes entirely black.
Total length, 590 millimetres; tail 55.
Habitat: Cape Colony and Namaqualand.
(2) A. scutatus (Fula-fula of Mozambique).—115–135 ventrals; 24–38 subcaudals.
Colour pale grey, with black spots or cross-bars, and a black mark shaped like a circumflex accent on the head. A black collar encircling the neck, and a black vertical streak below the eye. Belly whitish.
The total length may be as much as 520 millimetres.
Habitat: Natal, Delagoa Bay, Mozambique.
(f) Walterinnesia.
Maxillary bones prolonged forwards beyond the palatines, with a pair of large poison-fangs; no other maxillary teeth. Head distinct from the neck; eyes rather small, with round pupils; nostril between two or three nasal shields and the internasal. Body cylindrical; scales smooth or feebly keeled, in 23 rows; ventrals rounded. Tail rather short; subcaudal scales for the most part in 2 rows.
W. ægyptia.—Colour blackish-brown on the back, paler on the belly.
Total length, 1,170 millimetres; tail 170.
Habitat: Egypt.
Fig. 34.—Skull of Dendraspis viridis (Poisonous West African Colubrine). (After G. A. Boulenger, op. cit.)
(g) Dendraspis.
(Fig. 34.)
Maxillary