THE SNAKE. 205 
rattlesnake, addressed to. Thomas Stuart Traill, 
M.D., and inserted in Jameson’s Journal, says, that 
he confined a rattlesnake for three years in a cage. 
Did he never once get a sight of the fangs all that 
time? I will allow any body the range of the 
whole world ; and if he can produce one single soli- 
tary fang of any snake, great or small, with the 
point turned upwards, I will submit to be sent to 
the treadmill for three years. All fangs of snakes 
are curved somewhat in the shape of a scythe, with 
their points downwards; and we see clearly that 
their position in the mouth, and the manner in 
which they convey the poison, require that their 
points should be curved downwards. 
Mr. Taylor further informs us that “ black snakes 
are called racers, from their occasionally chasing 
men with great ferocity.” Chase argues pursuit 
and retreat: now, I affirm that snakes never chase 
men, nor, indeed, any other animals. 
If often happens that a man turns round and runs 
away when he has come suddenly upon a snake, 
“retroque pedem cum voce repressit ;’ while the 
disturbed snake itself is obliged through necessity 
(as I shall show by and by), to glide in the same 
path which the man has taken. The man, seeing 
this, runs away at double speed, fancying that he is 
pursued by the snake. If he would only have the 
courage to stand still, and would step sideways on 
the snake’s coming up to him, he might rest secure 
that it would not attack him, provided that he, on 
his part, abstained from provoking it. I once laid 
hold of a serpent’s tail as it was crossing the path 
