OF NORTH CAROLINA. 219 



is of several sizes, but generally round mouthed 

 and not hawk billed, as some are. The Indians 

 eat them. Most of them are good meat, except 

 the very large ones, and they are good food too, 

 provided they are not musky. They are an utter 

 enemy to the rattle snake, -for when the terebin 

 meets him he catches hold of him a little below 

 his neck and draws his head into his shell, which 

 makes the snake beat his tail and twist about with 

 all the strength and violence imaginable to get 

 away ; but the terebin soon dispatches him and 

 there leaves him. These they call in Europe the 

 land tortois ; their food is snails, tadpoles, or 

 young frogs, mushrooms, and the dew and slime 

 of the earth and ponds. 



Water terebins are small, containing about as 

 much meat as a pullet, and are extraordinary food, 

 especially in May and June. When they lay, 

 their eggs arc very good ; but they have so many 

 enemies that find them out, that the hundredth 

 part never comes to perfection. The sun and sand 

 hatch them, which comes out the bigness of a 

 small chesnut and seek their own living. 



We now come again to the snakes. The brim- 

 stone is so called, I believe, because it is almost 

 of a brimstone color. They might as well have 

 called it a glass snake, for it is as brittle as a to- 

 bacco pipe, so that if you give it the least touch 

 of a small twig it immediately breaks into several 

 pieces. Some affirm that if you let it remain 

 where you broke it, it will come together again. 



