Show WITH A SERPENT AND TIGER IN INDIA the following thrill ibe experience is related by a gentleman who was sent to india by an animal house bouse at amsterdam to procure a den of poisonous snakes for an circus it was not much of a seat feat to secure the a serpents wanted and in a fortnight the party wis was ready to pull up stakes it was on the last night of the hunters stay in the snake regions however t that hat the incident occurred which nearly cost b him im his life he says the but I 1 occupied had bad I 1 been used as a storehouse on each side of ef the sin single wag a doorway was a stout fence made of poles and running ig out about twenty five feet thus making a lane or passage about three feet wide when the house was filled with grain a sentinel watched at the mouth of this lane only one gereon could go or come at a time and each was thus under supervision they had suba a hammock tor for me so that I 1 faced the door and looked down this lane when lying on oa my right side aide each tight light a 91 fire fir was built last just at the mouth ot of the lane and there were so many other tires fires scattered about th that we felt safe irom tigers or serpents on this ni tit I 1 turned in at about 10 half an hour later it began to rain beav heavily ily and in a jew few minutes all the tires fires were out the rain continued until after midnight and then it cleared up and toe the moon rose i had lor for an bogrand bo arand awoke just as the liht light of the moon came over the jungle 14 shown full fall up the lane and the first thing WY my eyes rested on was a large cobra making its way toward me we bad seen none ol of anem in our two weeks stay but I 1 knew the species the instant f I 1 caught its motion my two guns were in the huts buts to spring out oat of the hammock and seize one of them and fire at the serpent was the work olten of ten seconds that was my gramme pro but as I 1 made the first movement I 1 found myself fast I 1 bid bad not removed my trousers and the buckle had worked itself down among the fibers and become last fast I 1 had bad only time for the one effort to get clear I 1 must dump out on oil my knees and the serpent was too near for MILL that the cobra might flee ju iu abright afrig bt but he be was more likely to 1 spring 9 upon me and suppose there was 1 a pair of them and that the other ad already entered the hut but in ten 8 seconds after this thought came to me I 1 was in ID a cold sweat and so BO weak that I 1 could not have stood on my feet this the slight flight movement move iLent I 1 had made alarmed the cobra and he coiled himself and aad waited full two minutes before coming again I 1 ought to move e and also use my voice but tor for the life of me I 1 could neither raise a finger nor ut utter ter a sound the serpent might have been ten minutes crawling craw liag the fifteen feet which brought him into the hut but As soon as he was over the threshold he was in the darkness and I 1 could no longer seek see him I 1 heard him crawling about over the dried grass on the floor however and knew that it was only a question of minutes when ke he would wo aid seek a closer acquaintance he might not strike me at once it never attacks unless cornered it nover never strikes a sleeper my hammock was slung about three feet from the ground after a few minutes I 1 heard the snake crawling toward I 1 prepared for the worst when I 1 turned in it was hafi very close clese anil and oppressive I 1 had bad therefore thrown the blankets out of the hammock the cold sin ain had chilled the snake and he was looking tor warmth the blankets were on oa the ground and this fact prevented him from coming into the hammock I 1 could not see him but I 1 could bould hear and scent him as he twined about and finally curled down when he had become quiet I 1 felt that I 1 had bad a chance tor for my mk lite life I 1 would wait until he be was asleep and then make a sudden spring and a rush it if I 1 waited until daylight aroused the natives the cobra would certainly bite me 1 I was cooler sow now and I 1 waited from twenty to twenty ake flave minutes before moving I 1 was just planning to dump myself out of the hammock when the moo moonlight blight revealed revea jed a new and an unexpected expected danger standing at the mouth of the lane and looking etral stra gut brot in upon me was a tiger that he had ead entered the village in search of prey I 1 kne knew R by his demeanor that he was au an old tiger atud itutti baer one oae could see by Ms his lordly air instead of coming in from the jungle he had bad come across the open and cultivated laua land and my hut was the first in his bis path di 1 did not believe he be would enter the hut but the lane would look like a trap to him and he would fight shy after looking at me for perhaps two minutes the tiger moved out of sight and present ly I 1 heard him stealing around the hut but to look for an opening there was no other and he be returned and surveyed me again while my eyes were wide open I 1 did not move a finger and the animal no doubt believed me asleep he saw the blankets on toe the ground but I 1 dont think he suspected the presence of the serpent when the tg tiger 1 finally I entered the opening p en ing and d be began n to approach me I 1 E gave e in myself yee I 1 u up P tor or lost with this feeling I 1 q ca came me that of coolness and I 1 was waa never more clearheaded clear headed beaded in my life for a moment I 1 forgot the snake but presently as the tiger was within ten feet feat ot the doorway I 1 heard the serpent utter a low hiss and move about the tiger had eyes and ears only for me he skulked over the ground exactly as you have seen a cat making no more noise than a mouse when he reached the doorway and stood with his bis forepaws on the threshold my heart stopp stopped beating his next move a spring he would find and me he ross there was an aa interval in erval of bf perhaps thirty seconds my sight went away from me m I 1 was halt dead with terror I 1 faintly remember hearings hearin if gf a hiss biss and a snarl and all at once I 1 rose the cobra and the tiger were rolling over and over in tap lone lanci and raising such a bat the whole village was aroused in a moment I 1 saw all the fight but remember very little serpent berant ant and tiger rolled away down the me lane and back again the one hissing hiss ilig like a steam engine and the other rolling and growling in ten minutes it was over both were dead I 1 fainted awa away and was unconscious the cobra had bitten bitten the uger tiger in more than afif fifty ty places and the tiger had used his hie teeth and claws to tear his enemy |