After all, it does not seem surprising that snakes should like milk. Being carnivorous by nature, they would at once detect an animal flavour in the liquid by the agency of their sensitive tongue. Now turning to India, we find that the love of snakes for milk is mentioned by numerous writers on the manners and customs of the Hindûs, as well as by travellers and naturalists. Balfour[25] tells us ‘when a snake discovers how to get at the eggs and _milk_ in a larder, no native will on any account kill it, because it is regarded as the good genius of the house.’ And again, ‘that the cobra is fed with _milk_ in some of the temples where it is worshipped.’ Dr. Shortt of Madras keeps a man to attend to his cobras, and finds they thrive excellently on sour milk, which is administered once in ten or twelve days.[26] ‘Snakes feed on eggs and _milk_,’ says Sir J. Fayrer. When we read similar facts mentioned incidentally, and with no especial object, we may give them credence even more than if a prejudiced writer were endeavouring to prove such or such a thing. For instance, during the visit of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to India, the exhibition of snakes and snake-charming formed a not unimportant item in the programme, and furnished many columns of cobra performances and cobra traditions to the papers. More than one of the journalists unintentionally corroborated what Balfour and other writers tell us about the ‘good luck’ of having a cobra in the _chuppur_ of the hut, the fearlessness with which the children regard their ‘uncle,’ as they call it, and their care in placing _milk_ and eggs for it each evening. But I am reminded of a singular case which came to me through a personal acquaintance from India who was present at the time. Four officers sitting in a bungalow in India were deep in a game of whist. Suddenly one of them, turning deadly pale, made signs that no one should move or speak. In a hushed voice he exclaimed, ‘Keep still, for God’s sake! I feel a cobra crawling about my legs!’ He knew that timidity was one of the strongest characteristics of this snake, and that if not disturbed or alarmed, it would in due time depart of its own accord. All present were accustomed to the stealthy intruders, and did not, happily, lose their presence of mind. They very noiselessly bent down so as to take a survey beneath the table, when, sure enough, there was the unwelcome visitor, a full-sized cobra, twining and gliding about the legs of their hapless friend. Literally death was at his feet! A movement, a noise, even an agitated tremble might have been fatal.