Our third card was this week`s red herring, for it is a snake which is known as the spectacled cobra. That refers to the white marking on the back of its hood, two circles connected by a curved line, which, if you look at it upside down, resembles a pair of glasses with just a nose clip, but without any arms. And that is how eyeglasses truly began, with what were technically a pair of magnifying glass style lenses, riveted together so that they held at the nose and balanced over it.
In France, and Belgium, where this card comes from, the Spectacled Cobra is known as Naja Lunettes, but not simply because lunettes are French for spectacles, more because a lunette is a special type of spectacles. You see, the word "lunette" actually comprises two parts, "lune", which means moon, and "-ette" which is a suffix meaning small, or in our case, half - and it harks back to a time when eye glasses were indeed small and semi circular. This sort of frame still exists today, as a basic level, though the fashion wavers between blending in with tiny glasses and standing out with giant colourful ones.
However the word "lunette" was already in existence when the eyeglass came along, as an architectural term, for a half circular window or painted panel above a door. And I was actually sent a scan of a card for Friday which gives "lunettes" a whole new meaning! But you will have to read on for that...
As for our snake, it has a deadly reputation, and in India and Sri Lanka it is one of the most venomous of all.
This is one of those thin little cards that I like a lot, and we are building up quite a gallery of them. This set is series 35, and there are twelve reptiles in the series, which are :
- Crocodile - crocodile
- Gavial - gharial
- Iguana Tubercule - tuberculated iguana
- Chlamydosaurus - frilled lizard
- Lezard Vert - green izard
- Moloch Herisse - thorny moloch
- Cameleon - chameleon
- Boa Constricteur - boa constrictor
- Python - python
- Naja a Lunettes - spectacled cobra
- Tortue Elephantine - giant tortoise
- Caret - sea turtle