LOUISIANA. 363 



pretend that the fnakes have an attradive 

 power. 



The cunnnig of fnakes is admirable •, I have 

 fcen fome, which perceiving that I looked at 

 ihem, did not flir at all, in order to make me 

 believe they were not there, and always conti- 

 nued in the fame attitude ; but as foon as I went 

 afide to get a flick or ilone to crufh their heads, 

 the fnakes made off and I did not find them 

 again when I returned. This is an experiment 

 I have often made in the defarts which I have 

 gone through, and where thefe animals are 

 common. 



There are many forts of them, of which the 

 moil remarkable is the rattk-fnake^ having four or 

 five round bones, at the end of the tail, which 

 make a kind of noife by rubbing againfl one ano- 

 ther, fimilar to the noife of a child's rattle. The 

 Indian women pound this rattle and fwallow it- 

 when they are going to lye-in, becaufe they pre-- 

 tend that they can by its affiilance bring forth 

 without pain. The fat of the rattle-fnake makes 



an 



mals in general and fquirrels in particular have ; another me- 

 thod to account for this pretended fafcination, fee in KalnCi 

 fra-veh I. p. 319. note. F 



