100 APRIL 



1 Do vipers swallow their young ? ' It has been 

 asserted from a very remote antiquity that they do 

 that when danger threatens, the parent snake 

 opens her mouth, into which the snakelets straight- 

 way pass for shelter in the gullet. Recognised 

 authorities have ranged themselves on each side in 

 this discussion; some relying on the abundant 

 evidence of people of known integrity, who claim to 

 have been eye-witnesses of the feat ; others refusing 

 to be convinced without ocular and anatomical proof, 

 usually a postulate in questions of natural science. 

 Admittedly, it is a delicate matter to prove, owing 

 to the very nature of it. First, you must find your 

 viper; not at this season though, when vipers are 

 most accessible, but late in summer, after the young 

 are out. Next, you must alarm the brood, and 

 watch closely to see if they enter their parent's 

 mouth. Then (and here comes the really trying part 

 of it) you must secure the throat of your viper by 

 tying a piece of string securely round it. Probably 

 it will be found more convenient to kill your viper 

 before this stage of the experiment; but this it 

 behoves you to do delicately, as if you loved her 

 (which, if you are a properly constituted human 

 being, you certainly don't), so as not to derange the 



