THE SNAKE. 
205 
I rattlesnake, addressed to Thomas Stuart Traill, 
M.D., and inserted in Jameson's Journal^ says, that 
he confined a rattlesnake for three years in a cage. 
Did he never once get a sight of the fangs all that 
time ? I will allow any body the range of the whole 
world ; and if he can produce one single solitary fang 
of any snake, great or small, with the point turned 
upwards^ I will submit to be sent to the treadmill 
for three years. All fangs of snakes are curved 
somewhat in the shape of a scythe, with their points 
downwards ; and we see clearly that their position 
in the mouth, and the manner in which they convey 
the poison, require that their points should be curved 
downwards. 
Mr. Taylor further informs us that " black snakes 
are called racers, from their occasionally chasing men 
with great ferocity." Chase argues pursuit and 
retreat : now^ I affirm that snakes never chase men, 
nor, indeed, any other animals. 
It often happens that a man turns round and runs 
away when he has come suddenly upon a snake, 
" retroque pedem cum voce repressit;'* while the 
disturbed snake itself is obliged through necessity 
(as I shall show by and by) to glide in the same 
path which the man has taken. The man, seeing 
this, runs away at double speed, fancying that he is 
purwsued by the snake. If he would only have the 
courage to stand still, and would step sideways on 
the snake's coming up to him, he might rest secure 
that it would not attack him, provided that he, on 
his part, abstained from provoking it. I once laid 
hold of a serpent's tail as it was crossing the path 
