DO SNAKES FASCINATE THEIR VICTIMS ? 77 



We have looked at the snakes of heathen mythology^ 

 and their historical successors, their enormous size, their 

 dragonian appetites. We have dared to look at that com- 

 pound of snake and bird, the basilisk, fully in the face,, 

 and its deadly glance has jH'oved no worse than a harm- 

 less smile ; its purple crown has been transformed into 

 a simple hood. But superstition and ignorance are very 

 difficult to eradicate, and therefore it is not surprising 

 that the myths of heathen mythology, with all their exag- 

 gerated fancies, should still throw a colouring halo over the 

 ideas of the present day. 



Had snakes ever attained the enormous proportions- 

 assigned to them by the ancients, we should surely have 

 some geological proofs of the fact. 



Without going into all the particular evidences of this 

 part of my subject, I may state briefly that there have 

 been no geological remains found bearing out such opinions, 

 nor have any skeletons or portions of bony structure been 

 discovered in more modern times which would indicate that 

 snakes existed which were larger than those known to exist 

 in recent times. 



Then, I have referred to the experiences of some of our 

 best observers, and I have ventured to detail my own 

 investigations into the proceedings which these reptiles 

 take in order to secure their food ; and putting all these 

 things together, we find we have to represent the largest 

 snakes in existence, and which probably ever did exist, 

 an ophidian, it may possibly be, 30 feet long, possessed of 

 enormous power certainly, but characterized still more 

 by its clever mimicry of nature, — be it branch of tree or 

 log on the water, — by its wriggling and darting tongue of 

 worm-like affinity ; and, lastly and chiefly, by the most 

 intense form of subtlety, which does pervade, or ever has 



