ON SNAKES. 



283 



to himself, and with astonishment to all who went 

 to see them. 



One of these serpents having died in Liverpool, 

 he most obligingly sent it to me for dissection. 

 As things turned out, nothing could have been 

 more acceptable, as you shall see anon. 



There had been a story current, above one hun- 

 dred years old, (invented no doubt, by some 

 anxious old grandmother, to deter little children 

 from straying into the back woods,) of a boot and 

 rattlesnake. 



It seems, that the poison-fang of the snake, 

 having pierced through the boot, came in contact 

 with the leg of the wearer, who died in a few 

 minutes. The snake then, glided away, leaving 

 the point of its fang in the boot. Sometime after 

 this melancholy event, another man, in trying on 

 the boot, got a prick from the fang ; and after 

 having experienced most excruciating pain, gave 

 up the ghost. A few weeks after this, a third man 

 having bought the boots, he put them on, and 

 perished in like manner. 



These sudden and extraordinary deaths, caused 

 an examination of the boots ; — when, lo and 

 behold ! the broken fang of a rattlesnake was 

 discovered sticking in the leather. 



This most absurd and impossible fabrication was 



