too many vertebrae and no eyelids; but he is
not always so horrible as he is imagined. A snake is rather a pleasant
thing to handle than otherwise. Warm, firm, dry, hard and smooth on the
scales, rather like ivory to the touch. He is also a deal heavier than
you expect. When for good behaviour I have been admitted to Tyrrell's
inner sanctum here, and to the corridors behind the lairs, where hang
cast skins like stockings on a line, I have handled many of his pets. I
have never got quite as far as rattlesnakes, because rattlesnakes have a
blackguardly, welshing look that I don't approve. But there is a Robben
Island snake, about five feet long, with no poison, who is very pleasant
company. It is a pity that these snakes have no pet names. I would
suggest The Pirate as a suitable name for any snake from Robben Island.

[Illustration: OLD CLO'.]

[Illustration: WELSHERS.]

For anybody who has been bitten by a cobra, or a rattlesnake, or a
puff-adder, there are many remedies, but few people who can recommend
them from personal experience. It is to be feared that most of them
unfortunately die before writing their testimonials. Perhaps they were
too long deciding which thing to take. The most famous of these
remedies, and probably the best, on the whole, is to get excessively
drunk. It is expensive to get drunk after a poisonous snake-bite,
because something in the veins fortifies the head against the first
bottle or two of whisky. Getting drunk before the bite won't do,
although there would appear to be a very widely prevalent impression
that it will, and a very common resolve to lay up a good store of cure
against possible accidents in the future. This may be misdirected
prudence, and nothing else, but there is often a difficulty in
persuading a magistrate to think so.

[Illustration: DRUNK TOO SOON.]

[Illustration: RESULT.]

The snake _will_ be eccentric, even in the matter of its eggs. Most
snakes secure originality and independence in this matter by laying eggs
like an elongated tennis-ball--eggs covered with a sort of white
parchment or leather instead of shell. All the rest go further, and
refuse to lay eggs at all.

[Illustration: FIRST THIS TIME, I THINK!]

[Illustration: LOR!]

The snake insists on having his food fresh; you must let him do his own
killing. Many carry this sort of fastidiousness so far as to prefer
taking it in alive, and leaving it to settle matters with the digestive
machinery as bes