HYPNOTISM. 
power. It may certainly be the 
negative cause of self-hypnotiza- 
tion. 
Apart from actual hypnotism 
and acute paralyzing fright, some 
persons’ minds are so constituted 
that when faced with a sudden 
and unexpected emergency they 
lose all self-control, and act in a 
variety of ways. Some remain 
rigid, with bulging eyes. Others 
become hysterical; others again 
gibber and talk utter nonsense. 
The lower animals are apt to act 
similarly. 
It must be borne in mind that 
humanfolk, as a_ general rule, 
regard snakes with extreme dread 
and horror, and when unexpectedly 
confronted by one, the working 
power of all the brain centres is 
apt to become temporarily para- 
lyzed, as is frequently the case with 
lower animals when suddenly faced 
by a much-dreaded foe. 
One night I spread my tired 
body under my blankets near our 
camp fire, and in stretching my 
legs to get the blankets all round 
me, my leg touched something cold, 
which hissed. I shot out of my 
blankets like the release of a 
coiled steel spring. The cause of 
the bother was a Cobra who 
had made himself comfortable 
among my blankets. I learned 
from that experience to shake 
out my bed-clothes carefully before 
lying down on the veld. 
One day I thrust my hand and 
Fic. 106.—A Boomslang in the act of swallowing his sister at the Port Elizabeth Museum. 
