CHAPTER XXXI 



THE VIPER AND THE SCORPION 



"XTOU just said," interposed Emile, "the bite of 

 JL the viper, and not the sting. Then serpents 

 bite, and do not sting. I thought it was just the 

 other way. I have always heard they had a sting. 

 Last Thursday lame Louis, 

 who is not afraid of anything, 

 caught a serpent in a hole of 



Head of Snake showing the old Wall. He had two COm- 



Forked Tongue rades with him. They bound 

 the creature round the neck with a rush. I was pass- 

 ing, and they called me. The serpent was darting 

 from its mouth something black, pointed, flexible, 

 which came and went rapidly. I thought it was the 

 sting and was much afraid of it. Louis laughed. 

 He said what I took for a sting was the serpent's 

 tongue; and to prove it to me, he put his hand 

 near it." 



"Louis was right," replied Uncle Paul. "All 

 serpents dart a very flexible, forked, black filament 

 between their lips with great swiftness. For 

 many purposes it is the reptile's weapon, or dart ; but 

 in reality this filament is nothing but the tongue, a 

 quite inoffensive tongue, which the creature uses to 

 catch insects and to express in its peculiar man- 

 ner the passions that agitate it by darting it quickly 

 from between the lips. All serpents, without any 



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