320 AMEllICAN SNAKES. 



Although he soon becomes accustomed to all kinds of 

 wild beasts, and shows the utmost indifference 

 to them, he can never conquer his aversion to the 

 whole serpent race. Yet the same thing may be said 

 of the human mind everywhere — it recoils with disgust 

 from the presence of snake life. 



This terror is, perhaps, one of the most incompre- 

 hensible instincts of humanity, for it prevails everywhere, 

 even when it has not been forced upon the mind by 

 experience. No reasoning overcomes it. Perhaps it is 

 founded upon the superstitions of olden times ; for, in 

 every ancient nation, we find the serpent taking some 

 position, frequently a very prominent one, in their 

 mythology. Upon all the ancient monuments of 

 Egypt, of Grreece, of Persia, of India, and of Arabia, 

 we find the serpent figuring as the type of wisdom and 

 mystery. On the remains of ancient Nineveh, and 

 upon the walls of the old Aztec temples of Mexico, it 

 holds a very similar place. Images of snakes are dug 

 out of the huge mounds on the western prairies, as 

 they are found in the Egyptian caves and mummy 

 vaults. 



The ancients had many sublime fancies, and many 

 ridiculous ideas respecting snakes; but most of the 

 fables of the past have been swept clean away by the 

 light which modern science has poured upon them and 

 their haunts ; and at the same time the reptiles them- 

 selves disappear, or, at all events, decrease in number as 



