THOSE HORSE-HAIR SNAKES ' 65 



to us unknown, and much may come of hidden 



causes." 



I have exchanged much comment on the sub- 

 ject of the hair snake with New England farmers. 

 I have heard it claimed by one rural authority that 

 a horse-hair bottled in water and placed in the 

 sun will become a snake at second full moon. 

 One prominent Granger, not to be outdone, went 

 so far as to affirm that an old horse of his fell 

 dead at the edge of the dam, and that the whole 

 animal's tail squirmed off, and the pond was full 

 of hair snakes in consequence. It becomes al- 

 most a matter of personal offence to the aver- 

 age countryman to question the truth of these 

 statements. The hair snake is &fact settled by 

 their forefathers, and more true than ever to-day. 



But snake stories, like fish stories, are always to 

 be " taken with salt," and lest some of our younger 

 readers may become converts to the rural authori- 

 ties with whom they are perhaps associated in the 

 summer outings, and in order also to relieve our 

 long-suffering horse from this outrageous libel on 

 its tail, it is well to settle our horse-hair snake 

 story once and for all. To this end, I doubt 

 if I can do better than to quote from memory 

 a certain village store discussion of which the 

 everlasting hair snake was the topic. I say " dis- 

 cussion," but this was hardly the proper term to 

 apply to a general conversation in which all the 



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