^0I3[' RATTLE-SNAKE. 



Supplement to a Memoir concerning the Fafcinating Faculty 

 zvhich has been afcribcd to the Rattk-Jhake, and other American 

 Serpents. 



' Having queftioned Indians, a number of times, with 

 refped to fnakes having the power of charming, and. always 

 being anfwered in the negative, I was at length defired (fays 

 my friend, Mr. John Heckewelder) to give the reafon the 

 white people had for believing fuch a thing, which not 

 The rattle-fnake being fatisfa6tory, Pemaholend * declared; " The rattle-fnake 

 by craft' a^nd obtains its food merely by flynefs, and a perfevering patience, 

 addrefs. It knoweth as well where to watch for its prey as a cat does, 



and fucceeds as well. It has, and retains its hunting grounds. 

 In fpring, when the warm weather fets in, and the woods 

 feem alive with the fmaller animals, it leaves its den. It will 

 crofs a river, and go a mile and further from its den, to the 

 place it intends to fpend the fummer; and in fall, when all 

 the young animals bred this feafon are become ilrong and 

 adive, fo that they are no more fo eafily overtaken or caught, 

 it direds its courfe back again, to its den, the fame as a 

 hunter does to his camp. 

 Indi«n tradition. " The white-people," continued Pemaholend, *' probably 

 have taken the idea of this fnake having the power of charm- 

 ing from a tradition of ours (the Indians) which our fore- 

 fathers have handed down to us, from many hundred years 

 back, and long before ever the white people came into this 

 country. Then (ibey tell us) there xuas fuch a fnake, and a 

 rattle-fnake too, but then there was only this one fnake which 

 had this power, and he was afterwards deflroyed ; and fince 

 that time it hath never been faid that any other ©f the kind 

 had made its appearance." 

 American native * At my requeft, Pemaholend related the tradition, and in 

 tradition about a jhe foUoWlng words. "Our forefathers have told us, that 

 rattle-jnake. <• ,»i i i , ,-n r , 



at a Imall lake, or large pond, not a great diftance from where, 



as is believed, now the great city Quequendku (Philadelphia) 

 is built, there dwelt a rattle-fnake, whofe length and thick- 

 nefs exceeded that of the thickeft and longeft tree in the 

 woods. This fnake was very deftruflive, not only in deftroy- 

 ing fo much game, but in devouring fo many Indians ; for 

 when he was hungry, he only looked round, and whatever he 



* An aged and much refpe£ied Delaware -Indian, 



5 faw. 



