284: RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



a rattlesnake. It has a head like that of a dog, and can 

 bite off a man's leg as clear as if it had been hewn down 

 with an axe." Such a description of any one of our ser- 

 pents is enough to make a person timid and suspicious of 

 all our snakes, nor can it be wondered at. Kalm, too, 

 magnified the fierceness, size, and courage of our serpents, 

 and particularly the black-snakes. Much of that which 

 he relates, be it understood, never happened. Among 

 other impossible occurrences he tells the following " snake- 

 story," which it would be hard to match, even in these 

 days : " During my stay in New York, Dr. Golden told 

 me that, in the spring, 1748, he had several workmen at 

 his country-seat, and among them one lately arrived from 

 Europe, who of course knew very little of the qualities 

 of the Black-Snake. The other workmen seeing a great 

 Black-Snake . . . engaged the new comer to go and 

 kill it, which he intended to do with a little stick. But 

 on approaching the place . . . the male (snake) in great 

 wrath leaves his pleasure to pursue the fellow with 

 amazing swiftness ; he little expected such courage in the 

 snake, and flinging away his stick, began to run as fast 

 as he was able. The snake pursued him, overtook him, 

 and twisting several times round his feet, threw him 

 down, and frightened him almost out of his senses ; he 

 could not get rid of the snake till he took a knife and 

 cut it through in two or three places. The other work- 

 men were rejoiced at this sight, and laughed at it, with- 

 out offering to help their companion." 



It will be observed that our author does not assert 

 that all this happened within his personal knowledge, but, 

 on the contrary, it is an instance of a person telling some 

 one else what a third person saw ; and this is usually the 

 case with snake-stories. 



Now, so far as the story of the fierceness of black- 



