‘But, rama, at the speed at which the snake was moving, wouldn’t it be possible to get out of its way quite easily?’
‘As I have just described, when an object moves towards it, the snake is disturbed by the forward ripple in the air, rides the object, and then changes course to fall along the path the object came on. But when an object moves away from it, the ripple draws the snake towards the fugitive, in his line of motion. When you move, you move the air around you. If you move away from the snake, it will be drawn towards you by the movement of the air around you. It will follow you! The more desperately you try to avoid it, the more violently you disturb the air, and the swifter it will ride down to strike.’
‘But rama, in a crowd... How could I pick out a target in a crowd? In the h
