I might have slept some four or five hours, and a dreamless and
satisfying sleep it was; but certain it is--let scholiasts say what they
will, and skeptics throw doubts by handfulls on the assertions of
metaphysicians--that, before I awoke, and in my dreamless slumber, I had
a visible perception of peril--a consciousness of the hovering presence
of death! How to describe my feelings I know not; but, as we have all
read and heard that, if the eyes of a watcher are steadily fixed on the
countenance of a sleeper for a certain length of time, the slumberer
will be sure to start up--wakened by the mysterious magnetism of a
recondite principle of clairvoyance; so it was that, with shut eyes and
drowsed-up senses, an inward ability was conferred upon me to detect the
living from the presence of danger near me--to see, though sleep-blind,
the formless shape of a mysterious horror crouching beside me; and, as
if the peril that was my nightmate was of a nature to be quickened into
fatal activity by any motion on my part, I felt in my very stupor the
critical necessity of lying quite still; so that, when I at last awoke
and felt that as I lay with my face toward the roof, there was a thick,
heavy, cold, creeping thing upon my chest, I stirred not, nor uttered a
word of panic. Danger and fear may occasionally dull the sense and
paralyse the faculties, but they more frequently sharpen both, and ere I
could wink my eye, I was broad awake and aware that, coiling and coiling
itself up into a circle of twists, an enormous serpent was on my breast.
When I tell you that the whole of my chest, and even the pit of my
stomach, were covered with the cold, scaly proportions of the reptile,
you will own that it must have been one of considerable size.
What my thoughts were--so made up of abhorrence, dread, and the
expectation--nay, assurance of speedy death, that must follow any
movement on my part--I can never hope to tell in language sufficiently
distinct and vivid to convey their full force. It was evident the
loathsome creature had at length settled itself to sleep; and I felt
thankful that, attracted by my breath, it had not approached the upper
part of my throat. It became quite still, and its weighty pressure--its
first clammy chillness becoming gradually (so it seemed to me) of a
burning heat--and the odious, indescribable odor which exhaled from its
body and pervaded the whole air--so overwhelmed me, that it was only by
a severe struggle I preserved myself from shrieking. As it was, a cold
sweat burst from every pore. I could hear the beating of my heart--and I
felt, to my increased dismay, that the palsy of terror had began to
agitate my limbs! "It will wake," thought I, "and then all is over!" At
this juncture, something--it might have been a wall-lizard, or a large
beetle--fell from the ceiling upon my left arm, which lay stretched at
my side. The snake, uncoiling its head, raised itself, with a low hiss,
and then, for the first time, I saw it,--saw the hood, the terrible
crest glistening in the moonshine. It was a Cobra di Capello! Shading my
eyes to exclude the dreadful spectacle, I lay almost fainting, until
again all was quiet. Had its fiery glances encountered mine, all would
have been over; but, apparently, it was once more asleep, and presently
I heard the Lascar moving about, undoing the fastenings of the tent, and
striking a light. A thought suddenly struck me, and, with an impulse I
could then ascribe to nothing short of desperation, though its effects
were so providential, I uttered, in a loud, but sepulchral tone,
"Kulassi! Lascar." "Sahib!" was the instantaneous response, and my
heart beat quicker at the success of my attempt. I lay still again, for
the reptile, evidently roused, made a movement, and its head, as I
suppose, fell on my naked arm. Oh God! the agony of that moment, when
suppressed tremor almost gave way to madness! I debated with myself
whether I should again endeavor to attract the attention of the Kulassi,
or remain perfectly quiet; or whether it would not be better than either
to start up at once and shake the disgustful burden from me. But the
latter suggestion was at once abandoned, because of the assurance I felt
that it would prove fatal; impeded by the heavy coils of the creature,
weak and nerveless from excitement, I could not escape its fangs. Again,
therefore, I spoke with the hollow but distinct accents which arise from
the throat when the speaker is afraid to move a muscle:--"Kulassi
Chiragh!"--Lascar, a lanthorn! "Latah own Sahib." I am bringing it, sir.
There was then a sound of clanking metal--light, advancing, flashes
across the roof of the veranda--and, at the noise of coming steps, lo!
one after one its terrible coils unwinding, the grisly monster glided
away from my body; and the last sounds that struck my sense of hearing
were the--"Ya illahi samp!" Oh God! a snake!--of the lascar; for I
fainted away for the first time in my life.
[Illustration]