OF NORTH CAROLINA. 217 



a toad, only he leaps, and is not poisonous. He 

 is a great devourer of ants, and the snakes devour 

 him. These frogs baked and heat to powder, and 

 taken with orrice root cures a tympany. 



The long, black snake frequents the land alto- 

 gether, and is the nimblest creature living. His 

 bite has no more venom than a prick with a pin. 

 He is the best mouser that can be ; for he leaves 

 not one of that vermine alive where he comes. He 

 also kills the rattle snake, wheresoever he meets 

 him, by twisting his head about the neck of the 

 rattle snake and whipping him to death with his 

 tail. This whipster haunts the dairies of careless 

 housewives, and never misses to skim the milk 

 clear of the cream. He is an excellent egg mer- 

 chant, for he does not suck the eggs, but swallows 

 them whole, (as all snakes do.) He will often 

 swallow all the eggs from under a hen that sits, 

 and coil himself under the hen in the nest, where 

 sometimes the housewife finds him. This snake, 

 for all his agility, is so brittle that when he is pur- 

 sued, and gets his head into the hole of a tree, if 

 any body gets hold of the other end, he will twist 

 and break himself oiFin the middle. One of these 

 snakes, whose neck is no thicker than a woman's 

 little finger, will sw^allow a squirrel ; so much does 

 that part stretch in all these creatures. 



The king snake is the longest of all others, and 

 not common ; no snake, they say, will meddle 

 with them. I think they are not accounted ver}^ 

 venomous. The Indians make girdles and sashes 

 of their skins. 



