FOOTING IT ACROSS THE CAPE 91 



tury or two ago, was the hero of a wonderous 

 snake story which, if it were not about a deacon, 

 one might think apocryphal. I did not see a 

 black snake on the whole journey, but they are 

 common enough even now and were once per- 

 haps much more so. At any rate Nauhaut was 

 attacked by a whole ring of them — so the story 

 runs — which approached him from all sides, 

 the snakes with black heads raised and hissing 

 venomously. Nauhaut with true Indian strategy 

 stool still as they approached, and even when the 

 largest of them twined about his legs and 

 climbed to his neck he made no move other than 

 to open his mouth wide. The chieftain snake 

 thrust his head into this mouth with its glisten- 

 ing white teeth, and Nauhaut immediately bit 

 the head off. Thereupon panic fear seized the 

 other snakes and they fled, leaving the deacon 

 master of the battleground. The Cape grows 

 some big black snakes to this day, but none like 

 those, nor have any later stories appeared to 

 match. 



The Cape has informative guide boards, 

 though whether the facts match the information 

 I am not quite so sure. Perhaps, sailor-like, I 

 was circumnavigating Cotuit, beating in, as one 



