OF NORTH CAROLINA. 213 



can renew their poison as oft as they will ; for we 

 'have had a person bit by one of these who never 

 rightly recovered it and very hardly escaped with 

 life ; a second person bit in the same place by the 

 same snake, and received no more harm than if 

 bitten with a rat. They cast their skins every 

 year, and commonly abide near the place where 

 the old skin lies. These cast skins are used in 

 physic, and the rattles are reckoned good to expe- 

 dite the birth. The gall is made up into pills 

 with clay, and kept for use ; being given in pesti- 

 lential fevers and the small pox. It is accounted 

 a noble remedy, known to few, and held as a 

 great arcanum. This snake has two nostrils on 

 each side of his nose. Their venom, I have rea- 

 son to believe, effects no harm, any otherwise 

 than when darted into the wound by the serpent's 

 teeth. 



The ground rattle snake, wrong named, because 

 it has nothing like rattles. It resembles the rat- 

 tle snake a little in color, but is darker, and never 

 grows to any considerable bigness, not exceeding 

 a foot, or sixteen inches. He is reckoned amongst 

 the worst of snakes ; and stays out the longest of 

 any snake I know before he returns (in the fall of 

 the leaf) to his hole. 



Of the horn snakes, I never saw but two that I 

 remember. They are like the rattle snake in col- 

 or, but rather lighter. They hiss exactly like a . 

 goose when anything approaches them. They 

 strike at their enemy with their tail, and kill 



BlO 



