Cobra

a venomous Indian serpent of the viper family. The cobra belongs to the class of hooded snakes. It is marked on the back of the neck with a figure resembling a pair of spectacles. It is sometimes called the "spectacled snake." It is a slender, active, deadly animal, about four feet long, infesting footpaths and copses. In the rainy season it takes refuge under the huts of the people. It makes its way into thatched roofs. It strikes without provocation and without warning. There is no certain antidote for its venom. As the peasants of India go barefooted, it is not strange that from 10,000 to 20,000 deaths from the bite of the cobra are reported annually. The government of India offers a standing bounty for its extirpation. Snake charmers go about enticing these dread serpents from their holes with tame snakes and music; then kill them. The cobra breeds rapidly; fifteen to twenty eggs are deposited in litter anywhere, and in a few days there are as many little cobras. The mongoose is the cobra's deadly foe. Kipling's Second Jungle Book describes a spirited contest between Rikki-tikki-tavi, the mongoose, and the venomous cobras. See Mongoose; Asp