THE RATTLE. 307 



were understood, it was sufficient to say of it in a tone of 

 pious thankfulness, that the Almighty had so armed this 

 serpent as a warning to its enemies. Some of those early 

 writers introduce the rattlesnake to us as the most benevolent 

 and disinterested of dumb animals, conscientiously living up 

 to his duties, obedient to that ' peculiar Providence ' which 

 has given him a rattle *to warn the inadvertent intruder of 

 danger.' ' He maketh such a noise that he catcheth very 

 few,' an evidence of imprudence wholly inconsistent with 

 his inherited 'wisdom.' Indeed, between the character 

 given of this ' superb reptile ' by Chateaubriand, and the self- 

 sacrificing qualities assigned it by some other writers, we can 

 only wonder how a hungry rattlesnake ever managed to 

 survive at all, and how it is that the race is not extinct long 

 ago. 



That the early and unscientific travellers, speaking from a 

 thankful experience of having escaped a rattlesnake through 

 Jiearing where it was, should seek no further for the utility of 

 the rattle, is not much to be wondered at. But so lately as 

 1 87 1 one of our popular physiologists, whose work is a text- 

 book, has expatiated on this theme so positively that it is 

 necessary to quote his words on this '■ admirable provision of 

 nature,' which apparently has elaborated a unique appendage 

 for the purpose of starving its proprietor ! 



* The intention of this organ is so obvious, that the most 

 obtuse cannot contemplate it without at once appreciating 

 the beauty of the contrivance. ... It (the snake) announces 

 the place of its concealment, even when at rest, to caution 

 the inadvertent intruder against too near an approach.' ^ 



^ Organization of the Animal Kingdom, p. 732. By T. Rymer Jones. 



