CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
169 
head, which action released the squirrel, who quickly ran into 
the creek.” 
Similar incidents are cited by the same author: “Dr. Good 
mentions the curious fascinating power the rattlesnake in par¬ 
ticular has over various small animals and birds, such as squir¬ 
rels and leverets which, incapable of turning their own eyes 
from those of the serpent enchanter, and overpowered with 
terror and amazement, seem to struggle to get away, and yet 
progressively approach him, as though urged forward or at¬ 
tracted by a superior power to that of natural instinct, till at 
length they enter into the serpent’s mouth, which had all along 
been opened to receive them, and are instantly devoured.” 
Dr. Barrow, in his “Travels Into the Interior of South 
America,” asserted this to be a fact regarding the various kinds 
of larger snakes, and Vaillant, in his “Travels Into Africa,” 
affirms that at a place called Swortland, beholding a shrike in 
the very act of fascination by a large serpent at a distance, the 
fiery eyes and open mouth of which it was gradually approach¬ 
ing, with convulsive tremblings, and the most pitiful shrieks of 
distress. He shot the serpent before the bird reached it; still, 
however, the bird did not fly, and on taking it up it was already 
dead, being killed either by fear or by the fascinating influence 
of the serpent, although upon measuring the ground, he found 
the space between them to be no less than three feet and a half. 
There is a case, much in point, inserted in one of the early 
volumes of the “Philosophical Transactions,” which states 
that a mouse, put by way of experiment into a cage in which a 
female viper was confined, appeared at first greatly agitated, 
and was afterwards seen to draw near to the viper gradually, 
which remained motionless, but with fixed eyes and distended 
mouth, and at length entered into the viper’s jaws and was 
devoured.” 
M. Oldfield Howey, in “The Encircled Serpent,” has this to 
say: “In the case of small animals and birds, the alleged power 
of attraction which the serpent possesses over them seems to 
be fairly attested by modern observers, who assert that the 
bird or animal which has fallen under the reptile’s spell not 
only does not attempt to escape, but will eventually draw closer 
