THE BRUISED SERPENT 175 



grass-covered kennel in the way. But that image 

 of the snake, introduced to give a more vivid idea 

 of the animal's action in swerving aside, was 

 false ; and because of its falseness and the want 

 of observation it betrayed, the charm of the 

 passage was sensibly diminished. For not once 

 or twice, but many scores of times it has happened 

 to me, in that very country so graphically de- 

 scribed in the book, while travelling at a swinging 

 gallop in the bright daylight, that my horse has 

 trodden on a basking serpent and has swerved not 

 at all, nor appeared conscious of a living, fleshy 

 thing that yielded to his unshod hoof. Passing 

 on, I have thrown back a glance to see my victim 

 writhing on the ground, and hoped that it was 

 bruised only, not broken or fatally injured, like 

 the serpent of the Roman poet's simile, over which 

 the brazen chariot wheel has passed. Yet if the 

 rider saw it — saw it, I mean, before the accident, 

 although too late for any merciful action — the 

 horse must have seen it. The reason he did not 

 swerve was because serpents are very abundant 

 in that country, in the proportion of about thirty 

 harmless individuals to one that is venomous ; con- 

 sequently it is a rare thing for a horse to be bitten ; 

 and the serpentine form is familiar to and excites 

 no fear in him. He saw the reptile lying just in his 

 way, motionless in the svmlight, " lit with colour like 

 a rock with flowers," and it caused no emotion, and 

 was no more to him than the yellow and purple 

 blossoms he trampled upon at every yard. 



