84 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
company with his father, along the wild lands of the Satilla 
River in Southeast Georgia. The task engaging their atten¬ 
tion at the time was that of rounding up some cattle which had 
grazed far afield. For days they had not returned to the corral. 
Lest they fall into the hands of rustlers, they must induce them 
to return to their own grazing ground where they may be more 
carefully safeguarded. Riding along a lonely trail, they ob¬ 
served a rabbit sitting motionless by the side of the path they 
were following. At first they gave no thought to him, rabbits 
being so plentiful, but as they drew near and he took no notice 
whatever of their presence, they reined their horses in his 
direction for a closer inspection. His behavior was wholly 
foreign to the nature of such wild creatures. He was sitting 
nose to nose with a large rattler, neither of them paying any 
heed whatever to the arrival of the two horsemen. By this 
time they had dismounted but were still treated as uninvited 
guests by both the rabbit and the rattler. One of the men man¬ 
aged to lay hold upon a suitable weapon and struck the reptile 
a fatal blow. To his surprise the rabbit did not flee from the 
scene as he had expected. While the two turned their atten¬ 
tion from the rattler to the rabbit, discussing such an unusual 
incident, he keeled over dead before their very eyes—or at 
least apparently. There was no sign of fang wounds upon 
him. They were sure that he had not been fanged. Diamond- 
backs prefer to hypnotize their rabbits, for by so doing they 
do not put up any struggle or possibly make an outcry, thereby 
attracting man or some other enemy to the scene. If famished, 
the rattler will, no sooner than he finds himself within strik¬ 
ing distance of his prey, fang them, but does not endeavor to 
hold them, for the reason stated above. He bets on his keen 
sense of smell. He knows well that if they should run a dis¬ 
tance of a thousand feet that he will be able to follow their 
trail, unerringly, to the scene of their demise, then have his 
fill. Father and son mounted their horses and rode away, 
sorely puzzled concerning the ways of the serpent. 
This old gentleman lived in a region, as well as on the same 
homestead, where his father and his father’s father had lived 
since the Seminoles roamed unchallenged through the primeval 
