NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 161 



died instantly; and that such was the rarity of the snake before his time, in 1655, that a 

 man might go about into the fields and woods, and not see one in seven years ; and that 

 the Indians extracted its four sharp teeth, and used them as a substitute for lancets. 

 Both these accounts of the deleterious effects of pennyroyal and snakeroot upon the 

 rattlesnake, are fabulous. 



Some of the most respectable ancient writers believed in the existence of a small kind 

 of serpent, which moved forward and backward, and had two heads, one at each extre- 

 mity. Galen and ./Elian represented it as an undeniable fact ; and Pliny says, " Geminum 

 habet caput, tanquam parum esset uno ore effundi venenum." Linnaeus has described 

 this species of serpents as having rings on the body and tail, no scales, and a smooth, equal 

 cylindrical body ; the tail hardly to be distinguished from the head, and very obtuse. 

 Dr. Bancroft, in his Essay on the Natural History of Guiana, observes, that it is said 

 there are three kinds of double-headed snakes in Guiana. He saw but one species ; it 

 was twelve inches long ; had very fine teeth, almost obscured by the gums ; its eyes 

 were hardly discoverable; and both ends have the same external appearance, from 

 whence it has been thought to have two heads, although only one mouth is discoverable, 

 which is small. From this it appears that those who believe in the reality of two heads, 

 one at each extremity, labour under a mistake ; and that their error has originated from 

 the similarity of the head and tail, and the smallness of the animal. Herrera, in his 

 History of America, says, that in Chiapa he found a two-headed serpent, eighteen inches 

 long, in the form of a Roman T, and very venomous : it not only kills, says he, by its bite, 

 but if any tread upon that part of the ground over which it has just gone, it proves fatal. 

 Bancroft states, in a note to his work before referred to, that a similar kind of amphis- 

 baena was found near a bay in Lake Champlain, in this state ; but I shall give the account 

 in his own words. " Since these sheets were sent to the press I have received a parti- 

 cular description of a monstrous amphisbaena, found near Lake Champlain, in North 

 America, by an officer in the American service, who, with one of his majesty's draughts- 

 men, was, during the late war, sent to make a survey of that lake. They were pre- 

 viously informed by the Indians of the existence of these serpents, one of which they 

 killed near a bay in Lake Champlain, which, in the maps of that country, has been since 

 called Double-Headed Snake Bay. This serpent was a small one of the kind, it being 

 about fifteen inches in length, and largest near the middle, terminating in a slender tail. 

 The body, at the other end, divided into two necks of equal size, to each of which was 

 joined a perfect head, with two eyes, a large mouth and throat, a forked tongue, with 

 teeth of the same species with those of the rattlesnake. The colour of the heads was a 



dark brown, and the scales on the back and side were variegated with alternate spots of 



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