"From a corner of the tent he produced a small wicker cage, in the
bottom of which lay coiled a snake of a bright orange yellow color,
whose very triangular head showed it to be an especially venomous
variety of the _naja_ species.
"Muttering a few words and crooning to it after the manner of
snake-charmers, it presently became lethargic, and he seized it by the
neck and poured a few drops from an earthen bottle down its throat; then
he dropped its tawny coils into its cage again, and placed the cage in
front of me. Soon the serpent roused. It glided frantically about its
cage; like a trail of molten gold was its color. Suddenly it coiled upon
itself in a spiral, and _stung itself to death_!
"After the most profound praise and flattery, and the present of a
little glass medicine dropper which I chanced to have with me, and a
small quantity of arsenic, which he tested with very satisfactory
results, on a dog, he gave me a portion of the drug, but I'm sorry to
say I could not prevail on the old scoundrel to give or sell the secret
of its composition," concluded Hilyard regretfully, lifting the phial
with tenderness. "I've tried to analyze it myself, and I sent it to a
celebrated chemist, but the ingredients completely defy classification,
and tests seem powerless to determine anything except that they are
purely vegetable," he said, shaking the liquid angrily, and then rising
to lock it in his cabinet.
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