96 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
the fact that the above-mentioned conditions conducive to hyp¬ 
notic sleep certainly prevail. Is this fellow, therefore, not the 
original hypnotist? 
Other findings of Uncle Dave have been confirmed by the 
revelations of this old gentleman of whose observations we 
write. Once during his seventy-eight years he found the nest 
of a rattler—turning the eggs out of the ground with his 
plowshares. Realizing that the one supervising the incubator 
must be close at hand, he instituted a search. She was found, 
but much to his surprise did not adopt a particularly menacing 
attitude, as might have been expected. She rather waited to 
see if he would not pass her eggs by unnoticed. Many of the 
eggs were taken home with him and deposited in a sand box. 
Covering same with a glass window pane he exposed them to 
the sun just to see if he would have any luck with his baby 
rattler incubator. Forgetting his experiment for a time, he 
returned to find his box almost full of the babies. This is at 
variance with the contentions of scientific men who insist that 
they are born, mammal style, and not hatched from eggs. We 
allow herpetologists 50 per cent on this question. The whole 
truth, as best we are able to acquire a full knowledge of it by 
long association with lay observers is, they may come into the 
world by either method. If taken captive prior to laying their 
eggs they would, in all probability, give birth to their young 
as claimed. If undisturbed in their native haunts, and the 
weather was not too cold and the ground too wet, when that 
urge of nature was felt, they would surely lay their eggs in 
the ground as so many truthful laymen will testify. 
April was upon him, and Uncle Dave was mightily moved 
by the magic of springtime. When we speak of springtime the 
reader will, of course, understand that we do not allude to 
that springtime in the far-away Rockies; neither in the apple 
orchards of French Normandy, but rather springtime in that 
enchanted wiregrass region of extreme South Georgia. Little 
wonder that the Indian, lover of nature that he was, responded 
also to that mysterious spell it weaves about one. Love of this 
region lured the Seminoles to elude the vigilance of the white 
man as they were being driven from a land they loved, and 
