124 THE STORY OF REPTILE LIFE. 



things came and swallowed it, and people die of 

 their malignancy to this day. The tree, there- 

 fore, from which the python spat up his venom 

 became deadly, and its juice is used to this day 

 for the purpose of poisoning arrows. The python 

 made the other creatures promise not to bite 

 without provocation. The cobra said : ' If there 

 be transgression so as to dazzle my eyes to make 

 my tears fall seven times in one day, I will bite/ 

 So said the tiger (whose bite the Karens esteem 

 as virulent as a serpent's) and others, and they 

 were allowed to retain their poison. But the 

 water-snake and the frog said they would bite 

 with or without cause as they liked. So the 

 python drove them into the water, where their 

 poison melted away and their bite became 

 harmless." 



Concerning poisonous snakes we may remark 

 that these are not, as was at one time believed, 

 a group of closely related forms, opposable, as a 

 group, to the non-poisonous snakes. On the 

 contrary, a more complete knowledge of their 

 anatomy shows that these poisonous, together 

 with certain non-poisonous forms, represent one 

 of two distinct branches of a common, non- 

 poisonous stock, the members of each branch 

 having independently acquired their deadly 

 powers. 



It is popularly supposed that the venom of the 

 snake is concealed in the curiously long forked 

 tongue, which is always so much in evidence in 

 the snakes. As in the similar organ of the 

 lizard, this is, as a matter of fact, perfectly harm- 

 less, and used only as an organ of touch. The 



