GENERAL AVERSION TO SNAKES. 309 



understood to be an absolute duty to " bruise his 

 head/ 1 whenever the opportunity should be afforded. 

 It is very remarkable how few noxious creatures, 

 animals which annoy man, inhabit with us ; beasts 

 and birds we have none, for the petty depredations 

 occasionally made on his property are undeserving 

 of attention. The gnat, and perhaps a few insects, 

 may at times puncture our skin ; but the period of 

 action is brief, the injury only temporary. The 

 wasp and the hornet, I believe, very rarely use their 

 weapons wantonly, only in self-defence, and when 

 persecuted : thus leaving the balance incalculably in 

 favour of innocency and harmlessness. But of all 

 the guiltless beings which are met with, we have 

 none less chargeable with criminality than the poor 

 slow worm (anguis fragilis^), yet none are more 

 frequently destroyed than it included as it is in 

 the general and deep-rooted prejudice attached to 

 the serpent race. The viper and the snake, though 

 they experience no mercy, escape often by activity 

 of action ; but this creature, from the slowness of 

 his movements, falls a more frequent victim. We 

 call it a " blind worm," possibly from the supposition 

 that, as it makes little effort to escape, it sees badly ; 

 but its eyes, though rather small, are clear and 

 lively, with no apparent defect of vision. The na- 

 tural habits of the slowworm are obscure; and, 

 living in the deepest foliage, and the roughest 

 banks, he is generally secreted from observation ; 

 but loving warmth, like all his race, he creeps half 

 torpid from his hole, to bask in spring-time in the 



