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CHAPTER 28
Speaking of Mongooses, our next demonstration was real, not staged, and thus not advertised. People had been pitting Mongooses against Cobras in fights all around India. In these, the Mongooses were disadvantaged by being restricted to cages or small areas in which to maneuver, limiting their ability to evade and tire out the snakes.
Normally (in the wild), Mongooses would prevail in such fang-to-fang combat, but having the Mongooses handicapped in this way made it more interesting to those who reveled in watching such things — and made it more of a ‘fair fight,’ the human spectators thought, as it gave the Cobra an even chance of coming out victorious (which meant emerging alive from the confrontation).
The human entrepreneurs who put on these fights benefited not only from the sales of tickets to watch these contests, but also from the wagering that would take place in connection with them.
Mullah told Albert and me about these events, and I went to the animals to discuss a solution. The Cobras and Mongooses, the ones who were pitted against each other in the arenas on these occasions, were all for putting an end to these scenes of terror and death.
And so we came up with a plan: The principals spread the word among their brethren (the Cobras telling their fellow Cobras throughout the entire region, and the Mongooses doing the same throughout their extended families) that, when they were captured by devious, bloodthirsty and greedy humans, they would at first offer no resistance, nor would they display any reluctance — until the fight with their opponent was to begin.
When released from their cages, though, both the Mongoose and the Cobra would not turn against each other, but combine forces to unitedly confront the humans.
The Mongoose would circle the gang of onlookers and speculators, preventing them from escaping by keeping up a constant chattering, drooling, and gnashing of its teeth. Leopards, Bengal Tigers, Black Panthers, and Elephants, who had been lying in wait nearby, and who had been alerted of the need for their services by the Birds who had been watching the goings-on from the sky, also helped out mightily by making their presence visible to the humans. Meanwhile, the Cobra would slither quickly toward the humans, raise up, tilt its head back, and sway back and forth, keeping the crowd at bay and cowed.
Then, the tramping of paws and the stamping of feet would be heard and felt (shaking the ground) when the Elephants arrived, surrounding the humans.
Finally, a human partner of the animals would appear on the scene and explain the situation to those who had gathered. These would be expecting to witness an exciting fight as spectators only, but would get more than they bargained for.
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