474 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
Adder venom acts chiefly on the blood and the walls of its vessels, 
breaking them up and causing hemorrhage into the tissues. 
Adder venom acts much more slowly than Cobra venom. 
The venom of every species of snake differs somewhat in its action. 
The widest difference is between the Cobra family and the Adder 
family of snakes. 
A serum is now prepared by immunizing horses to the venoms of the 
different classes of snakes. 
It is, therefore, an antidote to the bite of any kind of South African 
snake. 
The mortality in India from snake bite, until lately, has averaged 
20,000 a year. 
All the popular antidotes in India have been proved to be worthless. 
Dosing a man with large quantities of alcohol for snake bite is dangerous; 
so 1s ammonia and strychnine. 
The mythical Dragon is believed to have had its origin in the Python, 
of which there are many species inhabiting Asia and Africa. 
In a Chinese work entitled ‘““Shan Hai King” dating from 350 A.D., 
a great snake is referred to which possessed two pairs of wings. 
In China and Japan, the mythical Dragon is represented as being more 
or less snake-like, but in the other parts of the East and the West it differs 
more or less in shape. 
The Greek word “ drakon ”’ actually meant a large snake, and is so used 
by Aristotle and other classical writers. 
On a Greek vase is the painting of a great serpent called a Dragon 
guarding the tree in the garden of the Hesperides on which grew the 
golden apples, in quest of which, according to Greek legend, the hero 
Hercules went. The figure represents a large horned serpent coiled round 
the trunk of a tree on which the golden apples are hanging, while the 
figures of the Hesperides and Hercules are shown standing near. 
According to Bible history it was a great serpent who guarded the 
forbidden fruit and which tempted Eve to take and eat. 
The serpent was worshipped from exceedingly remote times, long 
before the origin of the Jewish nation. 
The ancient Egyptians worshipped a great serpent-god called “‘ Ha-her ”’ 
or “ great Lord of fear and terror.’’ They believed that to him the wicked 
would be handed over and frightfully tortured. 
The much-feared Evil Spirit of the Scandinavian mythology was a 
great snake. 
In Revelation xx., 1, 2, it says, ‘‘ The dragon that old serpent which is 
the Devil and Satan.” 
In the East even at the present day the serpent is regarded as being pos- 
sessed of an evil spirit and used by unseen powers for purposes of vengeance. 
Herodotus and Pliny believed in the existence of winged snakes. The 
belief in winged snakes probably arose from eels, which are snake-like 
in shape and possess fins, which would on drawings and carvings take the 
shape of wings. 
In Dutch Guiana the negroes believe that if the leaves of three species 
of trees are taken, pulverized and applied to the scarified site of the bite, 
it is a certain cure for snake bite, 
