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tongue will be exserted as in life ; and in other actions 

 they, as it were, carry out their intentions though deprived 

 of vitality. 'The headless trunk will strike,' says Dr. 

 Mitchel, and continue to do this when touched or irritated 

 as if it still had its head and its fangs to strike with ! 



Mr. George Catlin in his Life among the Indians relates 

 a circumstance of this kind which may well be introduced 

 here, as illustrative of this amazing fact — a rattlesnake 

 coiling and springing after it is decapitated. His party 

 were going down a river, and had just landed to explore 

 a little, when he saw a large Crotalus, and seizing his 

 gun fired at its head. At the same moment it leaped 

 and sprang towards him, apparently striking him on the 

 breast, Mr. Catlin being on the point of leaping back into 

 the boat. He thought he had fired and missed his aim, 

 and was a dead man, nevertheless much wondering at 

 having missed his mark. Meantime, an Indian, seeing a 

 spot of blood on the front of Mr. Catlin's linen smock, 

 exclaimed, ' You are bitten ! ' and without ceremony the 

 smock and flannel shirt were torn open, and a spot of 

 blood on his breast was exposed to view. Promptly the 

 blood was washed off, and the Indian on his knees had 

 his mouth at the wound preparing to suck out the poison. 

 Quickly looking up, however, he rose to his feet, and 

 with a smile of exultation said, 'There's no harm! You'll 

 find the snake without its head.' 



Stepping ashore again, and pushing aside the long grass, 

 there, sure enough, was the headless rattlesnake, coiled 

 up where it had fallen, and with its headless trunk erect, 

 ready for another spring. Mr. Catlin had not missed fire, 



