"The snakes, the cats, and the Malabar coolies are our best friends in getting rid of the rats; the snakes and the cats kill them for the love of doing so, and the coolies do it for the sake of food. They fry the rats in oil, and pronounce them a great delicacy; and when they have more rats than they can dispose of fresh, they dry them by smoking over a fire, the same as you dry bacon in America." [Illustration: PLEASURES OF A MORNING WALK.] The conversation naturally turned upon snakes, and the boys were not quite pleased to learn that Kandy was infested with venomous reptiles, and they were not unlikely to encounter one at any moment. Frank thought he should be careful about his morning walks in future, and Fred endorsed his cousin's opinion. Their host told them that the largest snake of Ceylon was the boa or rock-snake, and that happily he was perfectly harmless, like his friend whose performance they had just witnessed. Altogether, there are about fifty varieties of snakes in Ceylon, nearly all of them being harmless to man; eight varieties live in trees, two belong to fresh water, and there are seven or eight sea-snakes. The most dangerous snakes are four in number--the cobra, the tic-polonga, the carawalla, and the green carawalla. "The cobra," said he, "is the worst and most dangerous of all, and unfortunately he is sociable in his nature, and likes to come around houses; if one is killed near a house, his companion is sure to be seen in an hour or so looking for him. These snakes generally try to get out of the way, and do not bite unless trodden on or irritated; they like to wander around at night, and most of the accidents with them occur from their nocturnal habits. "They have a puff of skin on each side of the neck which they inflate when enraged, and thus add to their naturally horrid appearance. From this circumstance they were named by the Portuguese the _cobra-di-capello_--cobra with a hood--on account of the general resemblance of the puff of skin to a hood. Many have a pair of spectacles on the back of the hood, and their general color is black. Jugglers tame them, and play with them without apparent fear, and there are indications that the snakes have some attachment for their masters, and learn to obey them. "The tic-polonga, as he is called in the native language, is from four to five feet long, and has a thicker body than the cobra, but no hood. He is of a dark gray color, and rather difficult to rouse into anger; luckily, his movements are slow, and it is easy enough to get out of his way, if you know where he is. The snake-charmers are more afraid of him than of the cobra, as he is not as easy to manage, and his poison acts more promptly on the system. Birds and rats die instantly when bitten by these serpents, and their bites are nearly always fatal to men if the poison is fairly introduced into a wound."