234 THE GEE AT FATHER & SNAKES' WAYS 



Straightway his heart rising thereat, he called two or 

 three of his servants, and told them what he had seen, 

 bidding them go and take then rapiers, and kill the said 

 snake. The serving men came first and removed the 

 lame man (as I remember) and then the one of them 

 turned up the bed, and the other two the straw, their 

 master standing without at the hole, whereinto the said 

 snake had entered into the chamber. The bed was no 

 sooner turned up, and the rapier thrust into the straw, 

 but there issued forth five or six great snakes that were 

 lodged within. Then the serving men, bestirring them- 

 selves, soon despatched them, and cast them out of doors 

 dead. Afterward the lame man's legs recovered, and became 

 as strong as ever they were ; whereby did evidently 

 appear the coldness of these snakes or serpents which 

 coming close to his legs every night, did so benumb them 

 as he could not go.' 



It is often supposed that snakes are unable to make 

 any sound but the terrible hiss they utter when they are 

 angry ; but there is one African kind that imitates the cry 

 of a kid so exactly that it is impossible to tell one from 

 the other, and many is the animal which, thinking to find 

 a goat, has fallen into the trap set for it by the serpent ! 



Another species, that has a sort of voice in its tail, (as 

 well as one in its throat), is the rattle-snake. The famous 

 ' rattle ' that it sets up whenever it sees an enemy ap- 

 proaching comes from the shaking together of a loose, 

 horny, jointed substance at the end of its tail, and when 

 a man or animal hears this he knows what awaits him, 

 and can get out of the way if he chooses. If he does not 

 choose, but prefers to attack the rattle-snake, which 

 twists itself straight up in a wreath of many coils, its eyes 

 gleaming from the centre, he runs the risk of a speedy 

 and painful death. The teeth that the snake uses as his 

 weapon of defence are two very small and sharp ones in 

 his upper jaw, which have each a little bag at its root, 

 containing the poisonous, greenish fluid. This fluid spreads 



