Miscellaneous Facts and Obseroatmis. 167 



and always being answered in the negative, I was at 

 length desired (says my friend, Mr. John Heckewel- 

 der) to give the reason the white people had for be- 

 lieving such a thing, which not being satisfactory, 

 Pemaholend* declared: " The rattle-snake obtains its 

 food merely by slyness, and a persevering patience. 

 It knoweth as well where to watch for its prey as a 

 cat does, and succeeds as well. It has, and retains, 

 its hunting grounds. In spring, when the warm wea- 

 ther sets in, and the woods seem alive with the smaller 

 animals, it leaves its den. It will cross a river, and 

 go a mile and further from its den, to the place 

 it intends to spend the summer ; and in fall, when all 

 the young animals bred this season are become strong 

 and active, so that they are no more so easily over- 

 taken or caught, it directs its course back again, to 

 its den, the same as a hunter does to his camp. 



*' The white-people, continued Pemaholend, proba- 

 bly have taken the idea of this snake having the 

 power of charming from a tradition of ours (the Indi- 

 ans), which our forefathers have handed down to us, 

 from many hundred years back, and long before ever 

 the white-people came into this country. Then 

 (they tell us) there luas such a snake, and a rattle- 

 snake too, but then there was only this one snake 

 which had this power, and he was afterwards destroy- 

 ed ; and since that time it hath never been said, that 

 any other of the kind had made its appearance." 



* An aged and much respected Dolaware-Iiidian. 



