FABLES PREJUDICES. 
101 
it passes, on the contrary, like the other serpents, the whole 
year in a state of continual activity.* 
In our climate, and in North America, t serpents retire 
into their winter retreat toward the month of October, and 
reappear about the end of the month of March or April, 
later or sooner according to the greater or less rigour of the 
winter. The thick layers of fat with which their intestines 
are lined in autumn, are absorbed in a great measure dur- 
ing their torpor, and it is some days before they have re- 
covered their strength in the spring. An excessive cold 
kills them, whilst several fine days in succession often suf- 
fice to make them leave their retreats in the middle of winter. 
It is still to the work of M. Lenz J that we must refer 
for the detailed statement of the observations which this 
naturalist has made, to discover the effects which cold exer- 
cises on these reptiles. 
FABLES AND PREJUDICES. 
The serpent performed a grand part in antiquity^ and 
still plays it among most barbarous or demi-civilized na- 
tions. Numerous causes have been assigned for this phe- 
nomenon. Man intimidated by his aversion for these ani- 
mals, which is in him in some degree innate, has only learnt 
from experience, how small a number of these reptiles are 
formidable by their poisonous qualities, while others conceal 
under the same delusive appearances, a mild and inoffensive 
character. 
A thousand different properties, which are successively 
detected in serpents, have opened to man a vast field of 
meditation, and, in furnishing ample materials to dress out 
his religious ideas, have presented him with an infinite num- 
ber of mythic allegories. He has drawn from them symbols, 
and has ended in offering to those dreaded animals a wor- 
ship founded on the most diverse and conflicting motives. 
It would seem to be natural to man to avail himself 
* Neuwied, Beitr . p. 11. 
t Palisot-Beauvais, Ap. ; Latreille, iii. p. 4. if P. 57. 
