From CNN:
A deadly Egyptian cobra, which drew thousands of Twitter fans, has been found alive after it went missing for days from a New York City Zoo…The species’ more common home, however, is North Africa. Its venom is so deadly that it can kill a full-grown elephant in three hours — or a person in about 15 minutes, according to wildlife experts.
Oh, all right. I guess it’s finally time to tell my Egyptian cobra story.
In 1964 our embassy in Morocco assigned me to accompany an American film crew making a documentary in the Saharan desert. With some difficulty our Moroccan army liaison officer had convinced a Tuareg band to let us film their camp, as long as the women remained out of view.
As the crew was setting up in front of one of the tents, a camera man noticed something odd about the collection of shoes and sandals that the occupants, as good manners dictated, had left outside. There were fifteen. Why an odd number?
The officer called inside and an old man with a cane and a missing foot hobbled out. How did he lose his foot?, the officer asked and then translated the answer for us.
As a young shepherd, the old man had been bitten by a cobra while tending his flock. Miles from any help, which would have been useless in any case, he sat down, drew his dagger, and cut off his own foot. That’s how he got to be an old man.
Reminds me of the recent climber who got caught on a rock climbing a ledge and cut his hand and part of his arm off with a pocket knife. I didn't know Cobras were in North Africa - I'd always thought of them as indigenous to India but then Cleopatra should have given me the clue. Do they have mongoose there too?
Posted by: Buck on March 31, 2011 7:52 PMAnd it was a good story too. A friend told the story of this family who worked at his station whose very young daughter was bit by some type of mamba. This poor little girl didn't last but a minute. One afternoon sitting along the Volta River in West Africa 20 miles north of that place reading a green mamba came up from the bank and went right under my chair. It was huge or at least looked huge. That's a true story that I had forgotten. damn snakes were all over the damn place.
Posted by: One Fly on March 31, 2011 8:16 PM