THOSE HORSE-HAIR SNAKES 65 
to us unknown, and much may come of hidden 
causes." 
I have exchanged much comment on the sub- 
ject of the hair snake with New England farmers. 
I have heard it claimed by one rural authority that 
a horse-hair bottled in water and placed in the 
sun will become a snake at second full moon. 
One prominent Granger, not to be outdone, went 
so far as to affirm that an old horse of his fell 
dead at the edge of the dam, and that the whole 
animal's tail squirmed off, and the pond was full 
of hair snakes in consequence. It becomes al- 
most a matter of personal offence to the aver- 
age countryman to question the truth of these 
statements. The hair snake is &fact settled by 
their forefathers, and more true than ever to-day. 
But snake stories, like fish stories, are always to 
be " taken with salt," and lest some of our younger 
readers may become converts to the rural authori- 
ties with whom they are perhaps associated in the 
summer outings, and in order also to relieve our 
long-suffering horse from this outrageous libel on 
its tail, it is well to settle our horse-hair snake 
story once and for all. To this end, I doubt 
if I can do better than to quote from memory 
a certain village store discussion of which the 
everlasting hair snake was the topic. I say " dis- 
cussion," but this was hardly the proper term to 
apply to a general conversation in which all the 
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