172 Popular Delusions in Natural History. [Sess. 



would wriggle up to its place and join on, and so would all 

 the other pieces in due and proper succession until the tail 

 finally adjusted itself, when the now recompleted joint-snake 

 would dart off into the bushes not a whit the worse. He 

 also told me of a man who had experimented by lifting up 

 one of the pieces, but the joint-snake had no idea of going off 

 with a segment missing from the middle of his body. The 

 pieces joined together all right till the place was reached 

 where the missing one should come in, when the process of 

 reconstruction absolutely stopped. 



" And have you ever seen this ? " I inquired. 



" Certainly, sir, I have," he replied. Then he gave me a 

 most graphic account of how he and his brother were walking 

 one day in the orange-plantation when a joint-snake made its 

 appearance on their path, and the opportunity of making so 

 interesting an experiment was at once seized upon. The poor 

 creature was at once beaten into pieces ; but in a few minutes 

 all the pieces were reunited and the snake went off on its 

 way rejoicing, as if nothing at all unpleasant had happened. 



" I suppose," he concluded, " you will not consider this 

 credible ? " 



" Well," I replied, " all I can say is that it is contrary to 

 all the results of experience." 



Was this gentleman a deliberate liar or not ? I really 

 cannot undertake to say. He left me his name and address, 

 and also solemnly promised to send me a " joint-snake " in a 

 box ; but it has not arrived to this day. But I have since 

 found that the myth of the joint-snake is a matter of popular 

 belief in the United States, and in fact a few years ago my chil- 

 dren, to whom I had told the Yankee tale to amuse them, pointed 

 out to me an article in ' Harper's Young People ' in which the 

 legend of the joint-snake was related apparently as an actual 

 fact ! That is, I suppose, scientific education for the young ! ! 



We next come to the true snakes or Ophidia, and here a 

 very old and widespread belief arrests our attention. The 

 belief in question is that young adders are in the habit of 

 creeping down the throat of the mother in case of surprise or 

 danger. This belief is said to be as old as the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth, but it has recently blossomed out again in a most 

 vigorous manner, and a great deal has been written about it 



