94 POISONOUS SNAKES AND SNAKE POISONS. 



the answer between his teeth, ' may the Lord curse her 

 and her father and her mother and all her relatives, may- 

 he banish them into the abyss of hell ! A snake, massa, 

 but she roasts already in the fire !' Gone is our peace- 

 ful situation, everybody jumps up, the whole camp be- 

 comes lively, and all arm themselves with tongs, 

 pinchers or forks, take their seats on high boxes or bales 

 of wool and wait anxiously what the following hours 

 will bring. There they sneak in, by the dozen, the 

 vipers — where in the world do they come from ? 

 Cautiously everybody reaches down from his elevated 

 seat, pinches the ugly beast firmly immediately behind 

 the head so that it cannot bite and flings it amidst the 

 blazing flames, watching its destruction with malignant 

 joy. Instead of having sweet, refreshing sleep we must 

 sit up all night and defend our camp against those 

 detestable intruders which, attracted by the camp fire, 

 crawl and hiss around till the sun rises and we mount 

 our animals again." 



By far the greater number of reliable travelers, however, 

 tell us that snakes are by no means abundant. It is 

 true some of these animals are rather obtrusive and be- 

 come troublesome, as the water moccasin, which lays in 

 the sunshine on trees overhanging rivers and drops 

 without ceremony on the heads of people in boats going 

 under them, and in some districts of India snakes are 

 found on the roofs of houses, even in chairs and in beds, 

 so that a special inspection is needed before one can sit 

 down or go to rest. 



But this state of things is apparently an exception, as 

 we may infer from the reports of gentlemen who lived a 

 long time in countries that are considered by people as 

 swarming with most dangerous snakes. Dr. Davy, who 

 spent many years in Ceylon, says that he has seen more 

 monkeys there in one day than snakes during the whole 

 time of his stay. He speaks of the common belief that 



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