row,- 
monster and any number of traditions among the Indi¬ 
es “ d ° ld “ ldi ers of the Southwest concerning the 
blighting effects left by the crawling of the nnimaUiver 
any lumg plant or animal. Among the Coconahs of 
Southern California, where I had previously s^nt some 
ime I found a belief among the Indians that the most 
tO,tV VeDSe r e that can come t0 the spirit bodies of 
bad Indians after this life is to be bitten by a red Gila 
™ t6r roams unseen by mortal eyes over the 
imical' tT th Dg t0 SUap at the red ' skinn ed savages in¬ 
imical to the great spirit chief. 
seven white men and nearly twice as many half-breeds 
and Indians have fallen victims of the Gila’s bite, and 
it is probable that there are other cases which have 
never been heard of. Several of the fatalities occurred 
during the sweltering summer weeks that I was with 
Prof. Wetherbee. 
So formidable do these facts appear that President 
Diaz has been asked to use his influence in discovering 
the remedy which has long been known to exist among 
the Hualipis, a Mexican tribe of Indians who have al¬ 
ways kept their antidote a secret, and have baffled the 
attempts of many scientists to secure it, among them 
Gie famous Dr. Shufeldt. This not the fust time that 
President Diaz has been interested in the matter of se¬ 
curing a remedy for the Gila’s bite. A number of years 
ago the medical authorities of California asked him to 
secure the prescription used among the Hualipis, and 
it is said that not only did Diaz detail special officers 
to do the work, but when they ijsfcd, the President 
ceeded in getting them to bite viciously at the edge of 
a thin plate, where the poison gradually accumulated 
in the form of a thick, syrupy secretion. In contrast to 
most serpent venoms, which are acid, the Gilas’" poi¬ 
son was of an alkaline nature. During these experi¬ 
ments one of the reptiles caught a Mexican assistant 
by the thumb. Screaming with terror, the man beat 
the creature frantically against the side of the cabin, 
until Prof. Wetherbee secured a knife and chopped the 
monster in twa. Every stimulant and remedy at hand 
were in turn employed, but the Mexican gradually fell 
into a stupor, and within twenty minutes was dead. 
It was after this fatality that I became personally in¬ 
terested in Prof. Wetherbee’s work, and began working 
in conjunction with him in his little Arizona cabin, 
wheie the accompanying photographs were taken. 
For several years I had experimented with Gila mon¬ 
sters, but had never regarded them as more dangerous 
than rattlesnakes. I had liad the opportunity of seeing 
the poison act fatally in the case of human beings, and 
had experimented with it on animals; hut so far was I 
convinced that what would save a man from a rattle¬ 
snake’s bite would also save him from a Gila’s, that 
I made pets of two Arizona “monsters,” and often al¬ 
lowed them to climb up my arms and breast, playing, 
as it were, with absolute death. 
That I escaped death seems to me nothing short of a 
miracle, after knowing more of the nature of a Gila’s 
bite. ’ The poison obtained by Prof. Wetherbee was tried 
on a number of animals.; A small quantity injected 
into one of the wild Indian dogs caused death in less 
J than two minutes. Birds and other animals, brought 
Almost as senseless as this belief is the name of the 
reptile itself, which it takes from the Gila Diver, where 
_ sobers of old Fort Yuma used to kill them by the 
aU<1 ttlS faCt naturalIy lea(J s one to believe 
that they are only found there. As a matter of fact 
lrn y Ca r Hfo°r Und aU ,° Ver Arizona - are numerous In South¬ 
ern California, and range far south into Mexico. Many 
Ca " the reptile “rattlesnake 
fzaids, but the creature has a more hideous, and start¬ 
ling appearance than the rattlesnake, and for that rea- 
son the soldiers probably gave it the name of “mon- 
, Glla 1S about eighteen inches in length and in 
girth about the size of a boy’s arm. Its tail Is one-third 
the length of the body, and it has a mottled skin in red¬ 
dish yellow and dark brown. Its mouth is similar in 
shape to that of an alligator, and its little black eyes 
have the sleepy appearance of those of the alligator 
lamily. It weighs from three to four pounds. It has 
four stubby legs, shaped and placed, like those of a liz¬ 
ard, hut it has none of the rapidity of that animal and 
instead of being found in damp, coo] spots, it frequents 
the hottest sands and sunbaked soil. Rattlesnakes can¬ 
not remain in a heat that the Gila enjoys, and it is 
doubtful if even a salamander could stand a daily tem¬ 
perature of 135 deg. for hours, which the Gila grows fat 
on during midsummer weeks. 
The stories which have been generally Relieved that 
Gilas will pursue human beings, and thar they will 
crawl into houses in search of victims, have been dis¬ 
proved. The Gila-is a stupid creature, amt it will not 
wantonly attack. The great danger lies in stepping op 
