196 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



creature's tooth may presently be injected into the 

 beholder's veins to darken his life; when the fear 

 is slight and momentary, and passing away gives 

 place to other sensations, he is impressed by its 

 wonderful quietude, and is not for the moment 

 without the ancient belief in its everlastingness and 

 supernatural character; and, if curiosity be too 

 great, if the leaf-crackling and gravel-crunching 

 footsteps approach too near, to rouse and send it 

 into hiding, something of compunction is felt, as 

 if an indignity had been offered: 



O thoughtless, why did I 

 Thus violate thy slumberous solitude? 



In those who have experienced such a feeling as 

 this at sight of the basking serpent it is most power- 

 fully recalled by his extremely beautiful " Cadmus 

 and Harmonia": 



Two bright and aged snakes, 

 Who once were Cadmus and Harmonia, 

 Bask in the glens, and on the warm sea-shore, 

 In breathless quiet after all their ills ; 

 Nor do they see their country, nor the place 

 Where the Sphinx lived among the frowning hills, 

 Nor the unhappy palace of their race, 

 Nor Thebes, nor the Ismenus any more. 



There those two live far in the Illyrian brakes, 



They had stayed long enough to see 



In Thebes the billows of calamity 



Over their own dear children rolled, 



Curse upon curse, pang upon pang, 



For years, they sitting helpless in their home, 



A grey old man and woman. 



