a five-foot monocled cobra slithered through a throng of barefoot children one afternoon recently. not even the toddlers recoiled in fear.
'we sleep with the snakes, we eat with the snakes, we live with the snakes here,' shouted 14-year-old chinmoy mahji proudly. 'we are not scared.'
talk about a snake pit. the deadly serpents are everywhere here in mushari and its three adjoining villages, set amid muddy ponds and rice fields on the hot bengali plains northwest of calcutta.
a dozen yards from the assembled children, another cobra was lazily trying to swallow a frog that, under the effects of the snake's poison, had ballooned to the size of a melon. one more cobra emerged from a pond where village women washed their pots and nonchalantly made its way under a nearby house.
samir chatterjee, a school headmaster here, says that according to his census, more than 3,000 cobras live just in choto pashla, one of the three hamlets that abut mushari. 'whenever i lie down in my bed, a cobra will just slide on top of me, without hurting me,' boasts narottom sain, a mushari village leader.
while mr. sain has yet to be bitten, many others are not so lucky. the area's chief hindu priest, shyamal chakraborty, says that several villagers are attacked by cobras every month.
what to do when that happens is a matter of contention here, as india's ancient ways and taboos clash with slowly encroaching modernity. snakebites are a serious problem in india: according to estimates cited by the world health organization, serpent attacks kill as many as 50,000 indians each year.
compounding the problem is the widespread belief in the snakes' divine powers, and a religious prohibition on harming the deadly reptiles. the cobra, in particular, occupies a hallowed place in the hindu religion. the god vishnu is often portrayed with a halo of cobra heads, their hoods flaring, above his head. another major hindu god, lord shiva, is usually depicted with a cobra wrapped like a scarf around his neck.
according to legend widely believed here in mushari, the monocled cobras -- black serpents with a characteristic clear circle on their hoods -- first settled in the area in the year 911, on the orders of the snake goddess manasa.
the reptiles, one of a number of cobra species that live in india, are revered as incarnations of gods. only brahmins -- members of hinduism's priestly caste -- are allowed to touch them. even the skins shed by the snakes are covered by the taboo. with the cult attracting thousands of pilgrims, mushari's priests are eager to maintain their authority -- and the impression that their magic alone can properly treat the frequent snakebites.
'if you don't visit the doctor and just come to us, the bite will be cured in two, three days,' explains mr. chakraborty's son nayan, himself a saffron-clad priest, as he plays with a hissing cobra on the village square. 'but if you choose to go to a doctor, your limb will swell up and there will be complications. we tell people that if you don't listen to god and go to a hospital, it's at your own risk.'
the priestly treatment consists of making bite victims bathe in a shallow pond by the ancient ocher-colored temple, rubbing special mud into the wound and performing incantations. in many cases, it seems to work. 'when the snake bit me three months ago, i just ran to the priest, and soon it all healed,' says 9-year-old srabani kundu, as she points to faint fang marks on her right foot.
asked whether anyone has died of snakebites in the area, villagers grudgingly admit that it does happen -- but, they add hastily, only as a result of attacks by nonresident cobras, or by other snakes -- vipers or kraits, perhaps. 'our sacred cobras only kill ducks and chickens, but never humans,' assures mr. sain.
puzzled by the apparent mystery, the zoological survey of india, a government institution, sent in a team of scientists led by reptile specialist d.p. sanyal in the early 1990s. dr. sanyal says he determined that the serpents teeming around mushari are indeed 'monocled cobras, highly poisonous no doubt.'
but he didn't get much further: local villagers, eager to uphold the religious taboos, didn't allow him to collect venom samples and prevented him from taking one of the snakes to calcutta for examination.
these religious taboos -- and faith in the priests' magical powers -- are slowly beginning to crumble. facing the prospect of death after a bite, some villagers nowadays are opting for more conventional medicine. one such snakebite victim is malati dhara, a young woman who was attacked by a cobra as she watered her garden last year.
at first, ms. dhara tried to follow the old custom. she called on mr. chakraborty, the chief priest, and spent the first hours after the bite applying mud and chanting. but in her case, the traditional rite didn't do the trick. soon, her foot became bloated and blue, and she vomited.
feeling her body go rigid, ms. dhara asked to be rushed to the nearest hospital, in the town of burdwan, about 25 miles away. there, she was injected with a broad-spectrum antivenom. 'the priest had assured me that he will heal the bite, but it didn't happen,' she says. 'when i finally got to a doctor, he told me -- you've come so late, you're lucky to be alive.' ms. dhara still has a disfiguring scar on her foot where the snake got her.
'a cobra is highly neurotoxic, and no one will survive without the antidote if the poison is properly injected,' says indranil banerjee, the emergency medical officer at the burdwan hospital. 'i see this often. after being treated by witch doctors, people come here too late and just die.'
to infuse its lethal venom into the bloodstream, a cobra must turn its head, squeezing out poison that's connected to its fangs. the frequent survival of victims in mushari, dr. banerjee says, can be explained by the fact that local villagers manage to shake off the cobras immediately when they bite. also, he adds, a snake that has recently bitten a mouse or a frog may be fresh out of poison.
ms. dhara's near-death experience -- and rapid recovery after the antidote -- dented somewhat the priestly authority in the area. other villagers have since gone to the hospital with snakebites. on a recent day, as ms. dhara recounted her tale, 21-year-old gora chand dey nodded in approval. 'now, everyone knows you have to see a doctor,' he said loudly. 'people no longer believe in these priests.'
still, the age-old taboos aren't quite dead. breaking up this conversation, ms. dhara's mother-in-law, sandhya dhara, stepped into the crowd. 'we have to follow our traditions and go to the priests when the snakes bite,' she insisted. 'their rituals are the only cure.'
前些天的一个午后，一条身长五英尺的单眼斑眼镜蛇在一群光着脚丫的孩子们中间穿过，不过，即使是连路也走不稳的小不点儿们也并没有因为害怕而退缩。
14岁的奇莫伊•玛吉(chinmoy mahji)自豪地大声说道，我们和蛇同吃同住，在一起生活，我们并不感到害怕。
在穆沙里(mushari)和与之毗邻的三个村庄随处可见的多种致命毒蛇的身影，它们把家安在了加尔各答西北炎热的孟加拉平原上的泥塘和稻田中。
在距离那群孩子不远的地方，另一条眼镜蛇正懒洋洋地吞食着一只青蛙。在毒液的作用下，这只青蛙的身体胀得跟瓜一般大小。那边又有一只眼镜蛇从水塘里钻出来，若无其事地爬向附近的一处人家，而此时村里的妇女们正在这个水塘边洗着瓶瓶罐罐。
穆沙里一位名叫萨米尔•查特吉(samir chatterjee)的校长说，根据他的调查，仅在乔托-帕什拉(choto pashla)一地就生活着3,000多只眼镜蛇。乔托-帕什拉是毗邻穆沙里的三个村庄之一。穆沙里村的一个头领纳若托姆•塞恩(narottom sain)夸口说，只要我躺到床上，眼镜蛇就会爬过我的身体，但它并不会伤害我。
不过，就算他还没有被蛇咬伤过，其他许多人可就没那么幸运了。这个地区印度教的祭司长什亚莫尔•查克拉博蒂(shyamal chakraborty)表示，每个月都会有一些村民遭到眼镜蛇的袭击。
该如何应对此类事件引起了当地人的争论，这也是印度古老传统和禁忌与逐渐渗透的现代潮流发生碰撞的结果。蛇咬伤在印度是个严重的问题：根据世界卫生组织(world health organization)的估计，每年印度因遭毒蛇袭击而死亡的人数高达五万之多。
令问题更加棘手的是，印度人普遍相信蛇拥有神圣的力量，而且他们的宗教信仰不允许人们伤害这种剧毒的爬行类动物。眼镜蛇在印度教中占据着尤为神圣的地位：三大主神之一毗湿奴(vishnu)经常被描绘为头顶上方有一群颈部膨起的眼镜蛇围绕的样子。而印度教的另一主神湿婆神(lord shiva)的画像中总有一条眼镜蛇像围巾一样缠绕着他的脖子。
穆沙里当地人笃信这样一个传说，单眼斑眼镜蛇奉女蛇神摩纳娑(manasa)的旨意，于公元911年来到这个地方繁衍生息。单眼斑眼镜蛇通常为黑色，后头颈部有一单个圆圈。
作为生活在印度的许多种眼镜蛇中间的一种，单眼斑眼镜蛇被看作是神的化身。只有作为印度教最高种姓的婆罗门才能够触摸它们，就连蛇褪下的皮也受到保护。这种教派在穆沙里拥有成千上万的信徒，当地的祭司因此渴望保住他们的权威──也希望人们相信，仅仅依靠他们的神力就足以对付经常出现的毒蛇咬伤。
查克拉博蒂的儿子纳扬(nayan)也是名祭司。他在村庄空场上一边逗弄着一条吐着信子的眼镜蛇一边说道：“如果你不去看医生，而是直接来我们这里，蛇伤会在两三天内痊愈，而如果你选择去医院，那么四肢就会肿起来，还会出现并发症。我们告诉人们，如果你不相信神的旨意，去医院看病，那么就是在自冒风险。”
祭司们的治疗方法包括让伤者在一个位于一座古老寺庙旁的浅水塘中洗澡，将特制的泥浆敷入伤口，再开始念咒语。许多时候，这种方法似乎真的见效。9岁的萨拉巴尼•孔多(srabani kundu)指着右脚上模糊的牙印说：“当毒蛇三个月前咬伤我时，我跑去找祭司，不久以后伤口就完全好了。”
当问到这个地区是否有人因为毒蛇咬伤而死亡时，村民们不情愿地承认确有其事，不过他们很快补充说，只有那些来自异地的眼镜蛇或者蝮蛇、金环蛇等其他蛇类才会咬死人。塞恩保证说：“我们神圣的眼镜蛇只杀鸭子和鸡，而从不会伤害人类。”
这一传说令人迷惑不解，于是政府机构印度动物学研究所(zoological survey of india)在20世纪90年代初派出一队由爬行动物专家山亚尔(d.p. sanyal)带队的科学家来到此地。山亚尔表示：“可以肯定在穆沙里村附近大量出没的蛇类是单眼斑眼镜蛇，毫无疑问，它们都有剧毒。”
不过他未能展开更深入的调查：大力维护宗教禁忌的当地村民不允许他采集毒液样本，也没有让他带走任何一条蛇到加尔各答以作进一步研究。
这些宗教禁忌，以及对祭司们神奇力量的笃信，正在开始逐步瓦解。面对可能致死的毒蛇咬伤，一些村民选择了更为主流的药物治疗。玛拉蒂•达拉(malati dhara)就是这样一个蛇咬伤患者。去年，这位年轻的女士在花园浇水时遭到一条眼镜蛇的攻击。
起先，达拉遵从了古老的风俗。她找到了祭司长查克拉博蒂，并将被蛇咬伤后的最初几个小时用在了涂抹泥巴、念咒语上面。不过传统方法对她并不奏效。很快，她的脚变得肿胀淤清，还出现了呕吐症状。
达拉感到身体开始僵硬，于是要求立即送她到最近的医院接受治疗。在25英里外的布德万镇，医生给她注射了广谱抗蛇毒血清。她说，“祭司保证说他能够医好我的伤，不过事实并非如此。当我最后去看医生时，医生告诉我说：你这么晚才来，能活下来真是命大。”达拉脚上毒蛇咬过的地方仍然留有一道明显的伤疤。
布德万医院的急救医生因德拉尼尔•班尼尔吉(indranil banerjee)说：“眼镜蛇的毒液对神经的毒害相当大，在毒液完全注入体内的情况下，如果没有解毒剂，根本没有人能够存活。我经常碰到这种情况。许多人在接受巫医治疗之后都来得太晚，最终只能死去。”
为了将剧毒的毒液注入人的血液，眼镜蛇必须将头竖起挤出毒牙里的毒液。班尼尔吉医生说，穆沙里村常常有人侥幸活命是因为他们在被咬伤后设法立即挣脱了毒蛇；还有一种可能是那些刚刚咬死老鼠或青蛙的毒蛇已经用掉了一些毒液。
达拉的濒死经历以及在注射解毒剂后迅速康复的事实打击了当地祭司的权威。从那以后，其他村民也开始去医院治疗蛇咬伤。最近的一天，当达拉讲述自己的经历时， 21岁的戈拉•钱德•德伊(gora chand dey)也表示赞同。他大声说道，“现在，每个人都知道你必须去看医生。人们不再相信那些祭司了。”
尽管如此，古老的禁忌并未销声匿迹。达拉的婆婆桑德亚•达拉(sandhya dhara)走进人群，打断了谈话。她坚持说：“我们必须遵循传统，让祭司来治疗毒蛇咬伤。他们的治疗仪式才是唯一的救命办法。”