'lizzie: 479 



man assured me that he had seen one break in 'halves,' and 

 the two portions lying on the table. Not being a scientific 

 observer, he could not describe the appearance of the 

 fractured part, except that they seemed to contract ; and 

 this is what I have observed in the tail of lizards when 

 accidentally abridged. The owners do not appear, however, 

 to concern themselves about it. 



The name *worm' given to this little reptile is merely as a 

 creeping thing, a 'worm of the earth,' in common with many 

 other small crawling creatures which are not ^'BiX\\\-worms. 

 Its quality of 'slowness' is only another name for caution. 

 Quick and active it can be ; but in retreating down among 

 the moss or hay, or whatever you provide in its cage, then 

 you see the perfection of slowness. Not a blade stirs, not a 

 sound is heard, and one may repeat here that the manner of 

 progression in Anguis fragilis is not the least of all the 

 ophidian wonders we have witnessed. In the earth it can 

 burrow itself to the depth of several feet. In soft rubbish it 

 simply vanishes slowly ; its hard, polished scales permitting 

 it, as it were, to slide down into and among the hay with 

 that gently gliding motion which enables us to perceive how 

 very well it docs manage without the ancestral limbs. 



One other name it has, ' adder,' which, perhaps from 

 association with the true adder or viper, has gained it its 

 evil character of being venomous. 



But this word ' adder,' like ' worm,' was formerly used for 

 many creeping things, and is derived from old Saxon and 

 Danish words atter, eddre, cetter, etc., and the German natter, 

 which has a similar signification, any low-lying or crawling 

 creature. Even in this nineteenth century the 'slow-worm' 



