THE GBEAT FATHEB & SNAKES' WAYS 233 



Snakes are usually largest and most dangerous in hot 

 countries, and Dr. Livingstone tells of one in South Africa 

 that is over eight feet long, and has an immense amount 

 of poison in its fangs at once. He has seen it attacked 

 by a herd of dogs, and all four of them stung to death. 

 Of course the poison gets weaker the oftener it is used, 

 and while the first dog dies at once, and the second in 

 five minutes, the one who has received it last may linger 

 for some hours. He mentions a snake that he saw killed, 

 which contained in itself such vast supplies of poisonous 

 fluid that, even after its head was cut off, the fangs con- 

 tinued to drop it for many hours. This particular snake 

 has, according to the natives, a horrid trick of spitting its 

 poison straight into the eyes, with the result of blinding 

 its victim ; but we are not told whether it can cause 

 death without a distinct bite. 



In cold countries snakes generally seek out a warm 

 place when the air begins to grow chilly, and stay there 

 till the summer comes back. Long ago, a strange thing 

 occurred in the house of an English gentleman living in 

 the country, with a servant who had been with him from 

 a boy. Now this servant, says the chronicler, ' grew 

 very lame and feeble in his legs, and thinking he could 

 never be warm in his bed, did multiply his clothes, and 

 covered himself more and more, but all in vain, till at 

 length he was not able to go about, neither could any 

 skill of physician find out the cause. 



' It happened on a clay as his master leaned at his 

 parlour window, he saw a great snake slide along the 

 house side, and to creep into the chamber of this lame 

 man, then lying in his bed (as I remember) for he lay in 

 a low chamber, directly against the parlour window afore- 

 said. The gentleman, desirous to see the issue, and 

 what the snake would do in the chamber, followed, and 

 looked into the chamber by the window ; where he espyed 

 the snake to slide up into the bed-straw, by some way 

 open in the bottom of the bed, which was of old boards. 



