Leaping Snakes. 335 
of which are at a distance from the farmstead—and 
sometimes bring forth a litter there. 
When the mowers have laid the tall grass in 
swathes snakes are often found on them or under 
them by the haymakers, whose prongs or forks throw 
the grass about to expose a large surface to the sun. 
The haymakers kill them without mercy, and numbers 
thus meet with their fate. They vary very much in 
size—from eighteen inches to three feet in length. I 
have seen specimens which could not have been less 
than four feet long, and as thick as a rake-handle. 
That would be an exceptional case, but not alto- 
gether rare. The labourers will tell you of much 
larger snakes, but I never saw one. 
There is no subject, indeed, upon which they make 
such extraordinary statements, evidently believing 
what they say, as about snakes. A man told me once 
that he had been pursued by a snake, which rushed 
after him at such a speed that he could barely escape ; 
the snake not only glided but actually leaped over 
the ground. Now this must have been pure imagi- 
nation: he fancied he saw an adder, and fled, and in 
his terror thought himself pursued. They constantly 
state that they have seen adders ; but I am confident 
that no viper exists in this district, nor for some 
miles round. That they do elsewhere of course is 
well known, but not here; neither is the slow-worm 
ever seen. 
The belief that snakes can jump—or coil them- 
