238 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA, 
danger of the venom being absorbed by the mouth, for the 
sucked up venom will be mixed with blood, mucous, and per- 
manganate. The presence of the latter will render the poison 
harmless. 
An acquaintance of mine was bitten on the little finger by a 
Night Adder. He instantly undid a bootlace and ligatured the 
finger at the base. Sitting down, he scarified the wound, and 
started sucking it. The snake bit him at Io a.m. in his garden. 
At 3.30 p.m. we found him still sucking the wound. He said 
that he had been sucking it at short intervals ever since being 
bitten. He was in a state of partial collapse, which I attributed 
to nerve shock, believing as he did that a bite from a Night Adder 
was almost certain to terminate fatally. The following day he 
had recovered, but the finger suppurated, and refused to heal 
for four months. A year later it again broke out, and a large 
dark scab formed over the site where the snake had bitten him. 
The skin of the whole finger sloughed off, and the wound healed. 
The following year it again broke out and did likewise. The 
third year the same thing occurred, but to a lesser degree. Since 
then there has been no recurrence of the symptoms. 
In cases of bites by Puff Adders I have known the same thing 
often occur. The popular belief is that this periodic ulceration 
at the site of the bite will continue until the death of the snake 
which inflicted the bite. This, of course, is quite without 
foundation. The origin of this superstition can be traced to the 
natives, who are firm believers in it. I have known Kafirs to 
seek for days for the snake which had bitten one of their friends, 
in order to kill it, so that the wound would quickly heal. 
REMARKABLE POISON GLANDS. 
With perhaps two or three exceptions, venomous snakes have 
their poison glands situated at the sides of their heads, just beneath 
and behind the eyes. The glands are almond-shaped. The Night 
Adder is an exception to this general rule. Its poison glands are 
very long, and lie on each side of the backbone of the neck-region 
communicating with the poison fangs in the mouth by means of 
the usual duct, which is also unusually long. The illustration (Fig. 
96) shows this apparatus. 
The Night Adders are the most interesting of all South 
