The Wit of the Wild 



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every one to halt and scan a snake carefully 

 the instant it was seen (and that is not, you may 

 be sure, until after it has seen you) to make 

 sure it was not a cobra or something of the 

 sort. Such a habit and dread impressed upon 

 children as their first lesson in the cautions of 

 woodcraft, would become ingrained into the very 

 brain of the race as an almost instinctive fear. 

 By no amount of knowledge or philosophy can 

 I rid myself of this gruesome inheritance. I 

 have known good naturalists who have said the 

 same thing, and confessed that it made a serious 

 drawback to the pleasure of their rambles. 



Others, on the contrary, handle the bad ones, 

 cautiously, but calmly, and play with the harm- 

 less ones with no more repugnance than if they 

 were fishes or salamanders or frogs, cold and 

 reptilian things, by the way, that it does not 

 disturb me to handle. It is a curious coincidence 

 that most of these fearless persons are in terror 

 of spiders! 



To be reasonably " afraid of snakes " is the 

 safer state of mind, however, in the eastern part 

 of this country, where every rocky hill west of 



