50 SNAKE-HUNTING. 



may, after a while, be handled without any incon- 

 venience. 



To this assertion I can bear personal and somewhat 

 extensive witness ; for I have caught and kept num- 

 bers of snakes. The worthy villagers must have 

 formed curious ideas of me, and I rather fancy must 

 have accredited me with something of the wizard 

 character ; for I contrived to oppose their prejudices 

 — all, by the way, of a cruel character — in so many 

 instances, that they were rather afraid, as well as 

 annoyed. To see them run away, as if from a 

 lighted shell, when I came among them with a snake 

 in each hand, was decidedly amusing, and not less ' 

 curious was the pertinacity with which they clung 

 to their prejudices. 



In vain were arguments used to prove that the 

 snake was not a venomous animal, and ought not to 

 be killed and tortured ; in vain did I put my finger 

 into the snake's mouth, and let its forked tongue 

 glide over my very hand or face ; they were not to 

 be so taken in, and they remained wise in their own 

 conceit. 



They certainly could not deny that the snake did 

 not bite me, and that its tongue did not pierce me, 

 but the conclusion deduced therefrom was simply 

 that my constitution, or perchance my magical art, 

 was such that I was unbitable and unpoisonable. 



ISfo ! to them the snake was still poisonous, and 

 its tongue still envenomed. 



