486 SNAKES. 



New York and other journals published reports of the 

 Convention at the time ; and the entire paper by Professor 

 Goode was given to the world in the Annual Reports of 

 the American Association. 



From these I will condense the principal matter, quoting 

 also from a paper on the same subject written by F. W. 

 Putnam in vol. ii. of the American Naturalist for 1869. 

 Indeed, the two accounts are so blended that I can only 

 recommend both to the perusal of the interested reader, 

 Professor Goode having reproduced much from Putnam's 

 paper in the American Naturalist, which, as he informs us, 

 was the first that led him to take an interest in the subject. 



He began by reminding his audience that it had long been 

 a popular belief that the young of certain snakes seek a 

 temporary protection from danger by gliding down the open 

 throat of the mother, though it had been of late doubted by 

 so many naturalists as to be classed among the superstitions; 

 but that now a summing up of the evidence would show 

 conclusively that the popular idea is sustained by facts. 



The traditions of the North American Indians show that 

 the belief has prevailed with them from prehistoric times. In 

 England also, as he reminded us, as early as the sixteenth 

 century, allusions to it are found in Spencer's Faerie Qiieene^ 

 1590, Canto I. vv. 14, 15, 22, 25. From this a word or two 

 only need be quoted regarding the 



' Half serpent, half woman,' 



with 



' One thousand young ones sucking upon her poison dugs,' 



when she is disturbed in her dark cave ; 



' Soon as that uncouth light upon them shone, 

 Into her mouth they crept, and suddaine all were gone.' 



