ADVENTURE WITH A SALAMANDER. 171 



regarding toads. The Salamandei' tliei'e suffers an equally evil reputation with the toad, as 

 may be seen by the following graphic and spirited letter : — • 



" Returning liomeward a few evenings ago from a country walk in the environs of D , 



I discovered in my jiath a strange-looking reptile, which, after regarding me steadfastly for a 

 few moments, walked slowly to the side of the road, and commenced very deliberately clamber- 

 ing up the wall. Never having seen a similar animal, I was rather doubtful as to its proper- 

 ties ; but, reassured by its tranquil demeanor, I put my pocket-handkerchief over it, and it 

 suffered itself to be taken up without resistance, and was thus carried to my domicile. On 

 arriving ehez moi, I opened the basket to show my captive to the servants (French), when, to 

 my surprise and consternation, they set up such a screaming and hullabaloo, that I thought 

 they would have gone into fits. 



" ^Oh! la, la, la, la,-la! — Oil! la, la, la, la, la!'' and then a succession of screams, in 

 altissimo, which woke up the children, and brought out the neighbors to see what could be the 

 matter. 



" ''Oh, monsieur a rapporte ua sourd!'' 



" ' Un sourd!'' cried one. 



" ' Un sotted ! ' echoed another. 



" ' UN S-O-U-R-D ! ! ! ' cried tliey all in chorus ; and then followed a succession of 

 slirieks. 



•'When they calmed down into a mild sample of hysterics, they began to explain that 

 I had brought home the most venomous animal in creation. 



'■'■'■Oh! levUain bete!^ cried Phyllis. 



'■'■'■ Oh! le mediant ! ' chimed in Abigail ; ' he kills everybody that comes near him ; I have 

 known fifty peojile die of his bite, and no remedy in the world can save them. As soon as 

 they are bitten they goiiflent, goiiflent, and keep on swelling till they burst, and are dead in a 

 quarter of an hour.' 



"Here I transferred my curiosity from the basket to a glass jar, and put a saucer on the 

 top to keejj it safe. 



" ' Oh ! Ifonsieur, don't leave him so ; if he put himself in a rage, nothing can hold him. 

 He has got such force, that he can jump up to the ceiling ; and wherever he fastens himself he 

 sticks like death.' 



" ' Ah ! it's all true,' cried my landlady, joining the circle of gapers. ' Oh ! la, la! Qa me 

 fait peur; ga me fait tr-r-r-r-emhler ! ' 



" ' Once I sawa man in a hay-cart try to kill one, and tlie hete jumped right off the ground 

 at a bound and fasten itself on the man's face, Avhen he stood on the hay-cart, and nothing 

 coidd detach it till the man fell dead.' 



" ' Ah! c" est bieii tyrai," cried Abigail ; ' they ought to have fetched a mirror and held it up 

 to the hete, and then it would have left the man and jumped at its image.'' 



"The end of all this commotion was that, while 1 went to inquire of a scientific friend 

 whether there was any truth in these tissue of hetises, the whole household was in an uproar, 

 totU en emoi, and they sent for o. commissionnaire and an ostler with a spade and mattock, 

 and threw out my poor hete into the road, and foully murdered it, chopping it into a dozen 

 pieces by the light of a stable lantern ; and then they declared that they could sleep in 

 peace ! — les miserahles ! 



" But there were sundry misgivings as to my fate, and as with the Apostle, ' they looked 

 when I should have swollen or fallen dowTi dead suddenly ; and next morning the maids 

 came stealthily and peeped into my room to see whether I was alive or dead, and were 

 not a little surprised that I was not even gonfle, or any the worse for my rencontre 

 with a sotird. 



"And so it turned out that my poor little hete that had caused such a disturbance was 

 nothing more nor less than a Salamander — a poor, inoffensive, harmless reptile, declared on 

 competent authority to be no ways venomous ; but whose unfortunate appearance and some- 

 what Santanic livery have exposed it to obloquy and persecution." 



