SNAKE AND FROG PRATTLE 



" Surely, then, it interests us to know the lot of other animal 

 creatures. However far below us, they are still the sole created 

 things which share with us the capability of pleasure and the suscep- 

 tibility to pain." HUXLEY. 



IT may be edifying to confess a particular interest in 

 man's first enemy not such interest as the man of 

 science displays when he seeks to add to the knowledge 

 of the world, but a kind of social concern. None of us 

 is likely to forget that on the authority of Holy Writ 

 the serpent became familiar with mankind very shortly 

 after his appearance on earth, and whispered injurious 

 secrets into guileless ears. Ever since the scene in the 

 Garden of Eden, war between man and the serpent has 

 prevailed, and now, if we are to credit the sayings of the 

 wise, the end of all reptiles, if not actually in view, 

 cannot be long postponed. Is it not mete, therefore, 

 to take fair opportunity of studying the characteristics 

 and qualities of an animal, closely associated with us 

 by fable and in fact, which is doomed to extinction by 

 the ruthless strides of civilisation, which is regarded by 

 some as cleanly and decent, and by others as repulsive 

 and direful ? Plain, unromantic, unsensational state- 

 ments make for the acquirement of knowledge illustrative 

 of the habits and faculties of the creature against which 

 the hand of the average man is raised with a mixture of 

 wrath, vengeance, and fear. 



By study and observation one may come to understand 



232 



