Page:Omniana 2.djvu/300

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290
OMNIANA.

faction in having the reptile destroyed, and in believing the infidel will be damned for destroying it.

In one of the volumes of the Asiatic Annual Register, there is a remarkable account of the manner in which monkies destroy snakes. The monkies in question inhabit a prodigious Banyan tree, on the banks of the Nerbudda, having three hundred and fifty large trunks, and above three thousand smaller columns;.. but the monkey colonies are annoyed by having snakes for their neighbours, and being perfectly aware of the danger to be apprehended from these enemies, and where it lies, they watch the snakes till they perceive them asleep, then creep towards them, seize them fast by the neck, haul them to the nearest flat stone, and then begin to "grind down the head by dint of violent friction, every now and then stopping to breathe a little, and to take a proper grin at the progress of their work.