182 BEITISH SERPENTS. 



asked him, ' Have you ever seen adders swallow their 

 young ? ' He replied, ' No ; but I know that they do 

 so.' I said, ' Naturalists tell us they do not.' He 



said, ' My neighbour G told me distinctly that he 



had seen it, and I would believe him in the face of all 



the naturalists.' He continued : ' G told me that 



he had disturbed a viper with several young ones 

 lying around it. When they saw him the old one 

 opened her mouth, and the young ones wriggled down 



her throat. G disabled the viper, and putting 



his foot on the body, pressed it gently, when the whole 

 of the young ones came wriggling from her mouth' 

 Now, I am aware that this is only a sample of what 

 dozens of men tell us. But when I consider the char- 

 acter of such men as this G (whom I knew well 



as a farmer and as a man above the average for intelli- 

 gence and high character) and those I have mentioned 

 before, I can only arrive at one of two conclusions. 

 Either adders swallow their young or a considerable 

 number of persons of high repute have banded them- 

 selves together into a conspiracy of falsehood. And 

 this conspiracy appears to have been going on for gen- 

 erations, and to have spread over the entire country. 



" I can't help thinking that some of us poor country- 

 folk are not quite the simple and credulous mortals 

 we are sometimes represented to be. This is just a 

 mild protest against the somewhat disdainful attitude 

 of ' scientific bigwigs ' towards such country-folk as 

 myself and many others." 



