Snakes in Nature. 41 



Is beaming with many a mingled hue 

 Shed from yon dome's eternal blue 

 When he floats on that dark and lucid flood 

 In the light of his own loveliness." 



What " the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear : Which will 

 not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so 

 wisely," may have been in ancient Palestine, it is now 

 scarcely possible to say ; but in the old version of Holy 

 Writ the translators rendered the original word sometimes as 

 " adder," sometimes as " cockatrice " a fearful reptile, which 

 in the days of King James was thoroughly believed in. But 

 our poets, knowing that one of the English snakes is so 

 called, transferred to it the epithet of "deaf" regardless of 

 the fact that the creature is really very quick of hearing. 

 "Fierce" is another epithet sometimes coupled with it 

 " as the adder deaf and fierce ; " " fierce as the adder and 

 as deaf." Pope has " fierce as a startled adder," and our 

 English reptile, though a timid thing, will, it is true, turn, 

 but impotently, at bay if pursued and teased. 



With regard to these two Biblical points, the "ferocity" 

 and the deafness of the adder, the following passages from 

 Wood's " Bible Animals " are worth quoting. Speaking of 

 the general apathy of snakes, he says 



" The late Mr. Waterton, for example, would take up a 

 rattlesnake in his bare hand without feeling the least uneasy 

 as to the behaviour of his prisoner. 



"He once took twenty-seven rattlesnakes out of a box, 

 carried them into another room, put them into a large glass 

 case, and afterwards replaced them in the box." 



Coming then to the English adder, Mr. Wood gives the 

 following personal reminiscence : 



"As a rule, a great amount of provocation is needed 

 before a venomous serpent will use its teeth. 



" One of my friends, when a boy, caught a viper, mistaking 

 it for a common snake. He tied it round his neck, coiled 



