THE SERPENT’S STRANGENESS 155 
things that baffled his intellect. And _ before 
Solomon, the old Phoenician wrote that 'Taautus 
esteemed the serpent as the most inspired of all 
the reptiles, and of a fiery nature, inasmuch as it 
exhibits an incredible celerity, moving by its spirit 
without either hands or feet. Thanks to modern 
anatomists, this thing is no longer a puzzle to us; 
but with the mere mechanical question we are not 
concerned in this place, but only with the sense of 
wonder and mystery produced in the mind by the 
apparently “causeless march of sequent rings.” 
From English Coniston, where snakes are few 
and diminutive, let us go to the pine forest of the 
new world, where dwells the famous Pituophis 
melanoleucus, the serpent of the pines. ‘This is the 
largest, most active and beautiful of the North 
American ophidians, attaining a length of ten to 
twelve feet, and arrayed in a “bright coat of soft 
creamy-white, upon which are laid, much in the 
Dolly Varden mode, shining blotches or mottlings, 
which beginning at the neck are of an intensely 
dark brown or chocolate colour, but which towards 
the tail lighten into a pale chestnut.” A_ local 
Ruskin, the Rev. Samuel Lockwood, a lover of 
snakes, kept some of these reptiles in his house, 
and referring to their wonderful muscular feats, he 
writes as follows: 
Owing to this command of the muscles the pine snake 
is capable of performing some evolutions which are not 
only beautiful, but so intricate and delicate as to make 
them seem imbued with the nature we call spiritual. I 
