114 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
sixty or seventy feet distant. At this instant he whistled with 
a shrill note, then raised his forefinger to a position about level 
with his shoulder and commenced a pendulum-like motion. The 
squirrel stopped, observed with care, then commenced chatter¬ 
ing wildly. For some time he advanced toward the object of 
his curiosity, and would then retreat, advancing nearer each 
time, and as he retreated would not go so far. In general, 
behaving in the same identical manner as when under the 
hypnotic spell of the rattler. When the squirrel had advanced 
upon him to within a distance of two feet and appeared in the 
act of leaping upon his upturned finger, he clapped his hands 
together, and he clawed up the earth back to the creek from 
whence he had come. 
Men are of contrary minds as regards the source of the 
reptile’s hypnotic power. Some insist that he derives such 
power from his rattles, yet those without rattles possess the 
same power. Others insist that the musk the rattler throws 
possesses a stupefying effect which overcomes his prey, yet those 
possessing no musk appear to possess the same magic power. 
A few insist that the crazy markings on their skin serve to 
deceive the senses of the animal or bird, finally rendering him 
completely unconscious, maybe lifeless, yet those with solid 
coloring are found duplicating the tricks of those possessing 
all the colors of Jacob’s coat of old. Without doubt, more 
observers believe that in their eyes is to be found the source of 
more power than in any single one of these other devices. 
Once having drawn their prey to within close range by the 
employment of these other charms such hapless bird or animal 
seems wholly unable to retire. Some insist that they possess a 
basilisk eye, or eye with power to actually kill. They assuredly 
are not without good reasons for believing as they do. 
From time immemorial reptiles have somehow been asso¬ 
ciated with evil influences in the world, and it is entirely rea¬ 
sonable that had not the Book of Genesis been handed down 
to us of this generation, reptiles would have been inseparably 
linked with the evil doings of the Black Prince and his imps. 
Evolutionists, psychologists, authorities on the laws of heredity 
and learned men of other fields for whose opinions the writer 
