190 Life and Immortality. 



popular belief that a rattle is added every year, and that it 

 is possible to determine the age of the animals by this 

 means, is not borne out by facts. Sometimes two rattles 

 are known to appear within a year, and other instances are 

 recorded where four have been attained in that period, and 

 others still when several have been lost, new ones taking 

 their places. The number of rattles is also uncertain. The 

 greatest number, as observed by Dr. Holbrook, is twenty- 

 one, but a specimen is mentioned in the books that had 

 forty-four. 



Mild and peaceful in disposition, the Rattlesnake has never 

 been known, unless provoked, to attack a human being, nor 

 to follow him with hostile intention. He preys upon small 

 animals, as rats, squirrels, rabbits and birds, and can always 

 be approached when he is stretched out, only striking when 

 he is coiled. He is not a climber, seldom, if ever, being 

 found in trees. His alleged powers of fascination are purely 

 mythical. The horror his presence inspires often paralyzes 

 with fear his victim, who, incapable of flight, stupidly awaits 

 his fate. Men, women and children have been known, when 

 attacked by these animals, to become rooted to the spot, as 

 it were, by fear and surprise. All the so-called cases of 

 fascination can be explained by the fear which the snake's 

 unlooked-for presence inspires. 



Wonderful curative powers are imputed to the oil of the 

 Rattlesnake. Many snakes are killed during the summer 

 months for this oil, but the grand gathering of the crop is 

 in the fall, when they have repaired to their dens and winter- 

 ing places. Sunny days in October and November are 

 chosen by snake-hunters for raiding them. The snakes, dull 

 and sluggish at that time of the year, crawl out of their 

 dens upon the rocks, huddling together by the score for the 

 purpose of basking in the sun. Armed with old-fashioned 

 flails the hunters, when they come upon a group of snakes, 

 proceed at once to thresh them, but few making good their 

 escape. The Rattlesnakes, assorted from other species that 



