20 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



is extremely disagreeable, and it is irritant when 

 it enters the eye, although not otherwise in- 

 jurious." I have, while handling Indian snakes, 

 experienced this disagreeable qualification of 

 .theirs. Chateaubriand appears to have met with 

 A terrible a far more disagreeable snake in the States of 



snake. _ ° 



America. He says — "When approached it be- 

 comes flat, appears of different colours, opens 

 its mouth hissing. Great caution is necessary 

 not to enter the atmosphere which surrounds it. 

 It decomposes the air, which, imprudently in- 

 haled, induces languor. The person wastes away, 

 the lungs are affected, and in the course of four 

 months he dies of consumption ! " A terrible 

 snake this, if the story only were true ! 

 ^'^°*«*<ied I am sometimes asked, in all seriousness, whe- 

 ther there are such creatures in existence as two- 

 headed snakes ; and a gentleman once gave me 

 a description of one which he declared that he 

 had seen in the jungles in Australia, where he 

 said such snakes were common. After so posi- 

 tive a statement I did not, of course, venture to 

 suggest that he was mistaken. I should only 

 have got for an answer, " But I tell you I have 

 seen them." Two-headed snakes certainly have 

 existed and do exist. The Amphiebcena, for 



