172 



SNAKES. 



Delusion of Satan in this Shape hath much enlarged the 

 Opinion of their Mischief. Which was not so high with the 

 Heathens, in whom the Devil had wrought a better Opinion of 

 this Animal, it being sacred unto the Egyptians, Greeks, and 

 Romans, and the comxmon symbol of Sanity.' 



But, alas ! many spiny-tailed snakes have sprung to light 

 in various countries, long since Sir Thomas Browne so wisely 

 instructed his 

 readers ; and even 

 now, the * death 

 adder of Australia 

 {Acanthophis ant- 

 arcticd) is much 

 dreaded on account 

 of its thorn-like 

 tail; Krefft's ^ 



description of the repulsive aspect of this snake is suffi- 

 ciently terrifying, apart altogether from its looks alone, its 

 ragged-looking head, with its loose scales, thick body, and 

 its short, rough, unmistakeable tail, terminating in a sus- 

 picious-looking point, as if one sharp spine had taken root 

 there, and was capable of inflicting a wound. The tail spine 

 hardens only in age, he tells us, and ' is really not a 

 weapon either of attack or defence.' 



Another tail of evil repute belongs to the Water Viper 

 of the United States, vernacularly known as the 'Thorn-tail' 

 snake, TrigoiiocepJiahis piscivorus of American herpetologists. 



John Lawson, in his History of Carolina^ published in 1707, 

 was one of the first to describe it. After him we hear of it 



^ Snakes of Australia, by Gerard Krefft.. 



Death Adder (from Krefft's Snikes of Aiistralui). 



