332 NATURAL HISTORY. 



This belief increased in the days when myths originated, and Serpent worship became as great an 

 institution as that of any other animal, and left its impress on the minds of many generations, 

 thanks to tradition, a peculiar symbolical architecture, and ignorance of natural history. The cura- 

 tive powers of powdered Snakes, of the concretions collecting sometimes in their insides, and of their 

 cast-off skins, were long believed in, and the Serpent became the medical coat-of-arrns. Their rapid 

 movements and powers of attack were attributed to the gods, whose messengers of death they often 

 were, and it is therefore not to be wondered at, that during every age when superstition has dominated 

 the Snake was a power. The fascination said to be exercised by Snakes over their prey has formed 

 the subject of many essays, and it is universally credited that under the glance of the Serpent, birds, 

 animals, and even man, are motionless, unable to fly from the glistening evil, and, regardless of danger, 

 do not seek to escape, or fully aware of it, cannot. Snakes in a state of nature and in captivity are 

 different creatures, and the descendants of thousands of generations of animals, all of which have 

 suffered more or less from the Serpent's attack, may have hereditary fear of it. But in the Snake- 

 room of the Zoological Gardens the captive Snakes, and the Rats, Mice, and Birds, unaccustomed to 

 Snakes, do not impress one with the truth of the popular belief. Terror, undoubtedly, may exercise a 

 paralysing influence on the creatures in the way of the Snake ; and the parental affection of birds 

 for their young, which causes them to flit about their nest, and to be destroyed with their little ones, 

 is usually but erroneously taken for fascination on the part of the Snake. In fact, an analysis of 

 any instance of fascination shows it to be supposititious. 



A Snake when on the ground moves often with considerable rapidity. The head is slightly raised, 

 and the body and tail progress by means of the peculiar grasping power of the skin and ribs of the 

 underneath parts, which enables consecutive contraction and elongation to occur. The movement is 

 more or less flat with the earth, and the Snake never coils upwards, as is often figured in old and some new 

 paintings and engravings. It can erect its head and much of its neck and fore part of the body, and 

 this is also done when the creature is in horizontal coils, and quiescent. On moving up a stone or tree 

 the head, neck, and much of the body may be placed against the more or less vertical object, and a 

 small portion only of the body may be left on the ground, but in this position the Snake is liable to fall 

 sideways. On moving up a tree they do not coil themselves round and round it like a rope, but they may 

 do this when still. It is wonderful how Snakes move along and between boughs, and, taking a turn 

 round one with their tail end, swing and look for food, and also how they will make themselves up 

 into a bunch on a fork of a tree, and remain there without falling. They swim in an undulating 

 manner, but the body is wriggled on the same plane as the surface of the water, and not at right angles 

 to it, but in rushing at their prey, both in the water and on land, there is more or less upward or 

 downward bending of part of the body, and a rapid thrust of the head forwards. 



On looking at a skeleton of a Snake, the eye is impressed with the great number of vertebrae 

 and ribs. In some gi-eat Pythons more than 400 vertebrae have been counted, and each one is movable 

 on its neighbours. There is little distinction to be made by their structures between the vertebrae 

 of the neck, body, and tail, and there is no sacrum. The first vertebra, or atlas, and the second, 

 which has the odontoid process, resemble those of the Lizards, and the first of these is the only 

 vertebra in front of the tail which has no rib. The body of a vertebra has the joint surfaces 

 before and behind nearly hemispherical, and there is a concavity in front to receive the corresponding 

 ball on the back of the vertebra. Above, the spinous processes under the skin of the back are 

 generally long and flat, and project backwards somewhat, and at the base of each, on each side of 

 the canal for the spinal cord, is a process which fits into a cavity in the next vertebra, after the fashion 

 of the Iguana's vertebra (p. 280). Besides these, there are the ordinary articulating processes of the 

 sides. There are twelve jointing surfaces to each vertebra, and great movement is allowed by the 

 ball-and-socket joint, but dislocation is prevented by the " double tenon " and " double mortice," which 

 parts are called zygantrum and zygosphene, as in the Iguana. The transverse processes are very short, 

 and are recognised by a tubercle which offers two facets for articulation with the ribs. But in the tail 

 they are long and inclined downwards. The ribs are, of course, great in number, and each pair is jointed 

 on to the tubercle above mentioned by a ball-and-socket joint, so that an unusual amount of motion, 

 and especially of fore and aft motion, is allowed. There is no sternum, but each rib terminates by a 

 single tapering cartilage, which is attached by muscular connection with the broad scale on the Snake's 



