FASCINATION OF SNAKES 



tongue of the snake, so constant in its motions, naturally 

 attracts, as would any moving object, the attention of 

 small creatures suitable for food. Secondly, a state of 

 catalepsy, due to nervous shock and terror, is a common 

 event in the lives of various creatures. It is not the 

 fascination of the snake, but an overpowering sense of 

 dread that overcomes the bird or mammal upon which 

 the anaconda is steadily advancing. Another legend 

 concerning the snake is, that it lubricates its prey before 

 swallowing it. This is sheer invention. The actual 

 swallowing takes place without any such lubrication, 

 which indeed, with the small salivary glands at the dis- 

 posal of the snake, would be impossible. But it occa- 

 sionally happens that after swallowing, the object 

 swallowed is disgorged by fear or other emotion. Then 

 it emerges into the daylight, covered of course with the 

 viscid secretions of the oesophagus or stomach, a circum- 

 stance which may readily have given rise to the com- 

 monly held view. The anaconda feeds principally upon 

 reptiles, fishes, and mammals in fact, upon anything 

 that comes handy. A catholic taste in meat is the pre- 

 vailing fashion among snakes, there being but rare ex- 

 ceptions, such as the egg-eating snake of Africa, Dasy- 

 peltis scabra. Its habit of lurking in or by streams, is 

 well suited to its tastes ; for all mammals must come and 

 drink at times. The murky backwaters of South 

 America do not lend themselves to clear vision ; and it is 

 therefore not surprising to learn that in the anaconda 

 the sense of sight does not help it so much in detecting 

 its prey as the sense of hearing and then touch. It 

 is said that when rats are introduced into a cage con- 

 taining this serpent it does not begin to " take notice " 

 until the rats begin to squeak. Their dolorous notes 

 arouse the attention of the snake ; it pricks up its ears 

 so to say, and on the first contact with the exploring 

 rodents winds its deadly coil round them. Like the 



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