LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



117 



of broken rocks, where he would have been beyond 

 my reach, but before he could gain this place of 

 refuge I caught him two or three tremendous whacks 

 on the head. He, however, held on, and gained a 

 pool of muddy water, which he was rapidly crossing, 

 when I again belabored him, and at length reduced 

 .his pace to a stand. We then hanged him by the 

 neck to a bough of a tree, and in about fifteen 

 minutes he seemed dead, but he again became very 

 troublesome during the operation of skinning, twist- 

 ing his body in all manner of ways. This serpent 

 measured fourteen feet. 



There is no amount of torture that man aye, 

 and woman too, will not inflict on an animal that 

 does not cry out. If the eels, which the fish-wife 

 or the cook skins with so much unconcern, could 

 express their agonies audibly, nothing would in- 

 duce either of those delicate females to continue 

 the horrible and merciless operation ; but the eels 

 are mute, and suffer accordingly. 



Two works of art, ancient and modern, rise 

 before us ; one in all the simplicity and purity of 

 marble ; the other glowing with all the enchant- 

 ment of color. In the one, the agonized priest of 

 Apollo and his hapless children vainly struggle in 

 the folds of the serpents : 



Laocoonta petunt : et primum parva duorum 

 Corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque 

 Implicat, et miseros morsu depascitur artus. 

 Post ipsum auxilio subeuntem ac tela fereutem 

 Corripiunt, spirisque ligant ingentibus ; et jam 

 Bis medium amplexi, bis collo squamea circum 

 Terga dati superant capite et cervicibus altis. 

 Ille simul manibus tendit divellere nodos, 

 Perfuses sanie vittas atroque veneno ; 

 Clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit. 



In -that marvellous group, 



All made out of the carver's brain, 



the serpents are so represented, that the spectator 

 feels that there is no hope for the victims. The 

 very opposite, of it appears in the subject made 

 musical by the exquisite Doric reed of Theocritus, 

 and brought in all its grandeur before the eye by 

 the bold and beautiful pencil of our own Reynolds. 



In the idyll of the Greek,* opening with one of 

 the most charming material scenes and good nights 

 ever presented to the imagination , the serpents are 

 made to relax their folds when the spines of their 

 backs waxed weary under the killing grasp of the 

 Infant Hercules ; and in the British picture you 

 see at once that they are dying, overcome by the 

 vigor of the son of Jupiter. 



But as long as the locomotive machinery is in 

 good order, the sinuous, graceful windings of the 

 serpent, joined to the bright hues with which the 

 skin of the majority of the species is enamelled, 

 make it a pleasing object to those who can over- 

 come the natural antipathy felt by so many at their 

 presence, and incline them to sympathize with the 

 Indian girl 



Stay, stay, thou lovely, fearful snake, 

 Nor hide thee in yon darksome brake ; 

 But let me oft thy form review, 



torra. x, 1, 



Thy sparkling eyes and golden hue ; 

 From thence a chaplet shall be wove 

 To grace the youth I dearest love. 



Then, ages hence, when thou no more 

 Shalt glide along the sunny shore, 

 Thy copied beauties shall be seen ; 

 Thy vermeil red and living green 

 In mimic folds thou shall display ; 

 Stay, lovely, fearful adder stay ! 



To be sure, poets, as well as doctors, differ ; 

 and Coleridge, in " that singularly wild and beau- 

 tiful poem," tells us that 



A snake's small eye blinks dull and sly. 

 And dull it is sometimes, but only before moulting, 

 for the skin of the cornea comes off with the rest 

 of the slough. When the serpent comes out in 

 its new coat, with its bright eye and elegant action, 

 it is as different from its former self as Talley- 

 rand in solitary dishabille was from Talleyrand 

 dressed in a brilliant assembly, through whose 

 crowded mazes he would wind his way, his very 

 lameness lending grace to his gently undulating 

 progress. 



Those who define a serpent as an apod, or foot- 

 less animal, carry their definition too far. The 

 large constricting serpents, and not only those, 

 hut eryx and tortrix, are furnished with the rudi- 

 ments of hinder extremities, which appear to have 

 escaped the notice of Sir Everard Home, but did 

 not escape that of Dr. Mayer. Observing the 

 spur, or nail, on each side of the vent in the 

 bo'idce, the doctor examined further, and found it 

 to be a true nail, in the cavity of which is a little 

 semi-cartilaginous bone, ungual phalanx, articu- 

 lated with another much better developed bone, 

 which is concealed under the skin. This second 

 bone of the rudimentary foot presented an external 

 thick condyle, with which the ungual phalanx was 

 articulated, and was furnished besides with a 

 smaller internal apophysis. Proceeding in his 

 investigation, he laid bare a rudimentary tibia 

 with its muscles, and made out a complete pos- 

 terior limb, such as it was, the foot being furnished 

 with its abductor and adductor muscles. Upon 

 these elements he founded his Phcenopoda, a family 

 of Ophidians, having the rudiments of a foot visible 

 externally, containing the genera boa, python, eryx, 

 and tortrix. 



The author of the article " Boa," in the Penny 

 Cydopcedia, where the details of this curious dis- 

 covery are given, observes, that no one can read 

 of the habits of these reptiles in a state of nature 

 without perceiving the advantage which they gain, 

 when, holding on by their tails on a tree, their 

 heads and bodies in ambush, and half-floating on 

 some sedgy river, they surprise the thirsty animal 

 that seeks the stream. These hooks help the 

 serpent to maintain a fixed point ; they become a 

 fulcrum, which .gives a double power to his 

 energies. 



We need not go to the Valley of Diamonds 

 with Sinbad to find enormous serpents. The 

 companions of other sailors have bee,n swallowed 

 up by those monstrous reptiles, as was too clearly 

 proved to the crew of the Malay proa, who an- 



