ADVICE TO ADDER SEEKERS 81 



Not only must the seeker go softly square foot of ground which is not 

 but he must have a quick-seeing, ever- already occupied by an adder coiled in 

 searching eye, and behind the eye a readiness to strike, 

 mind intent on the object. The sharp- In adder-seeking the main thing is 

 est sight is useless if he falls to thinking to find your adder without disturbing 

 of something else, since it is not possi- it, so as to be able to stand near and 

 ble for him to be in two places at once, watch it lying quiescent in the sun. 

 To empty the mind as in crystal- The best plan is to come almost to a 

 gazing is a good plan, but if it cannot stop as soon as the creature has been 

 be emptied, if thought will not rest caught sight of, then to advance so 

 still, it must be occupied with adders slowly and stealthily as to appear 

 and nothing else. The exercise and stationary, for the adder although 

 discipline is interesting even if we find unalarmed is, I believe, always con- 

 no adders : it reveals in swift flickering scious of your presence. In this way 

 glimpses a vanished experience or state you may approach to within two or 

 of the primitive mind which, like that three yards, or nearer, and remain a 

 of the inferior animals, is a polished long time regarding it. 

 mirror, undimmed by speculation, in But what is the seeker to do if, after 

 which the extraneous world is vividly long searching, he discovers his adder 

 reflected. If the adder-quest goes on already in retreat and knows that in 

 for days it is still best to preserve the two or three seconds it will vanish 

 mood, to think of adders all day, and from his sight ? As a rule, the person 

 when asleep to dream of them. The who sees an adder gliding from him 

 dreams, I have found, are of two sorts aims a blow at it with his stick so as 

 pleasant and unpleasant. In the not to lose it. Now to kill your adder 

 former we are the happy first finders is to lose it. It is true you will have 

 of the loveliest and most singular something to show for it, or something 

 serpents ever looked upon ; in the of it which is left in your hands and 

 second we unwittingly go up barefooted which if you feel disposed you may 

 into a place from which we cannot put in a glass jar and label " Vipera 

 escape, a vast flat region extending berus." But this would not be the 

 to the horizon, littered with adders, adder. Must we then never kill an 

 We have lifted a foot and don't know adder ? That is a question I do not 

 where to set it, for there is not one undertake to answer, but I can say 



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