THE FARMER'S HELPERS 349 



all intimidated. Finally it seized the serpent by the 

 middle of its body, and the two adversaries rolled 

 together on the floor in a furious struggle, the quad- 

 ruped grunting and snorting, the reptile hissing and 

 making repeated use of its fangs. Suddenly the 

 hedge-hog seized its antagonist's head and crunched 

 it between its teeth, after which, without the least 

 sign of perturbation, it proceeded to devour the 

 forward half of the body. That done, it returned 

 to the opposite corner of the box and, lying on its 

 side, calmly began to suckle its young. On the mor- 

 row it ate the rest of the viper. The same experi- 

 ment was several times repeated, with an interval 

 of some days between each repetition and the next, 

 but the issue was always the same : in spite of wounds 

 that set its snout to bleeding, the hedge-hog inva- 

 riably finished by devouring the reptile, and neither 

 the mother nor her young showed any ill effects 

 from the experience. ' 



"It is to be assumed that the hedge-hog has not 

 received the gift of withstanding the venom of rep- 

 tiles only to leave that gift unemployed. The ani- 

 mal is evidently intended to find its chief pleasure 

 in haunting the places frequented by the viper; in 

 its nightly rounds among the underbrush it must 

 often catch the lurking serpent and make short work 

 of the venomous creature. What valuable service 

 it must render in regions infested by this dangerous 

 reptile ! And yet man is the hedge-hog's inveterate 

 foe, showering it with maledictions and treating it 

 as an unclean beast good for nothing except perhaps 



