254 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH: AFRICA. 
the conclusion of the lecture I counted sixteen bites on his bared 
arms, hands, and neck. 
AN AMERICAN SNAKE CATCHER. 
I was much amused to read an illustrated article in a well- 
known magazine of the “ daring and perilous ”’ exploits of a snake 
collector in America. This brave man who “ ran the most appalling 
risks ”’ of death from snake bite, issued forth on his snake-catching 
excursions clothed in a leather shirt, a pair of tough leather 
breeches, top boots, gauntlet gloves and a mask. What a brave 
man he was, and what a perilous occupation was his! Williams, 
the South African snake catcher, sallies forth in a cotton shirt, 
slouch hat, rolled up sleeves, and as likely as not a pair of thin 
khaki trousers. Occasionally he wears leather gaiters. These 
latter he dons for protection against the thorny shrubs which 
abound in the South African veld, more than as a safeguard 
against snake bite. 
CAN SNAKES FASCINATE THEIR PREY ? 
That snakes are able to exercise some power of mesmeric or 
hypnotic power and so paralyze the movements of their intended 
victims, is almost universally believed throughout the Western 
world, except amongst those few naturalists who have made a 
close study of the subject. Popular literature is teeming with 
anecdotes and essays on the power of snakes to fascinate birds, 
small mammals, and even human beings. 
In all literature, ancient and modern, frequent references are 
made to snakes. In Egypt there are many ancient carvings of 
the Egyptian Cobra on the old ruins of a past civilization. 
The fact that a snake carries a subtle, potent fluid, and an 
apparatus by which, at any moment, when least expected, a death 
wound may be inflicted, has caused mankind to invest snakes with 
the most magical and diabolical of powers, leading to snake- 
worship and the belief that serpents are the incarnation of all that 
is evil and demoniacal. The Cobra is an object of veneration and 
superstitious dread even to-day among the natives of India. 
