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(1) E. carinatus (Efa, Viper of the Pyramids).—The same as met with in Persia, Arabia, and India. Very common in the environs of Cairo, and throughout Egypt and Abyssinia. It often makes its way into towns and villages. Brehm records that he more than once found an Efa in his house at Khartoum, and that on one occasion he discovered one of these vipers coiled up beneath the covering of his bed. At another time, getting up in the night, he put his foot on one of these animals and was not bitten, the reptile being very fortunately just at that moment in the act of devouring a tame bird which it had seized.

It hardly ever happens that a native of Egypt can bring himself to destroy an Efa, of which he has the greatest dread. If, as often occurs, he finds one of these reptiles in his house, he addresses himself to the Hani or juggler, in order that, by his magic art, he may expel the dangerous visitor. From this custom the juggler evidently derives no small advantage, for, as is only right, he does not ply his craft for nothing. In many cases, indeed, the juggler releases a snake in a house, and then goes and informs the owner that he knows that a reptile is concealed in his dwelling, and that, in consideration of a stipulated reward, he will rid him of it (Brehm).

Fig. 41.—Echis coloratus. (After G. A. Boulenger, op. cit.)

(2) E. coloratus (fig. 41).—Scales on the snout and vertex convex, smooth or bluntly keeled, 13–15 from eye to eye; no supraocular shield; 17–22 scales round the eye; 12–15 supralabials; scales on the body in 31–35 rows; 174–205 ventrals; 42–52 subcaudals. No cruciform mark on the head.

Total length, 750 millimetres; tail 80.

Habitat: Palestine, Arabia, Socotra.