254 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
has waved his magic wand before him, lulling him into peaceful 
slumber for as long a period as six months. Like the writer, 
he admits that he does not know for sure, but just the same he 
is not willing to write it off as being utterly without foundation 
—at least not for a while yet. All the evidence seems to point 
to the fact that the rattler can, provided it suited his conveni¬ 
ence to do so, put squirrels, rabbits, and rodents to sleep and 
keep them in that state all summer long. 
A party of young men once went out determined to learn 
something of Uncle Dave’s art of putting the halter on rattlers. 
They were full of enthusiasm and self confidence, but woefully 
lacking in discretion. They found signs about a hole indicating 
that one was surely living there. They gave the outside sur¬ 
roundings the “once-over” just to see if he was outside sunning 
himself, but seeing nothing they commenced excavating. Two 
men working together inside a square hole nearly shoulder 
deep were making satisfactory progress. Little did they realize 
it, but a large diamond-back was not far away, completely con¬ 
cealed underneath a tuft of wiregrass. Finally he became so 
very nervous that he had a sudden urge to go home. When 
they break out of their coil to run for their hole they go like 
a purple martin for his gourd. He piled into the hole with the 
two men, both of whom will tell you to this day that it was 
the most uncomfortable moment of their entire lives. They 
finished their rattler hunting that same day. 
An attempt has already been made to give the reader a clear 
idea of the rattler’s method of locomotion. Those who have 
seen the “thousand-leg” worm, common to the Southern states, 
in motion, can very easily get a mental picture of the rattler’s 
internal equipment in action. The “thousand-leg” is a worm 
with a hard outer shell, attaining a length of about four inches, 
and about the size of the average lead pencil. He is equipped 
with a row of legs on both sides, as close together as they can 
be spaced, and extending all the way from their head to their 
tail. When in motion he crawls perfectly straight, but one 
cannot, for the life of them, tell just how he does it. All of 
the legs are in action the whole while, yet no two of them ever 
separate. Waves form at his head, moving his full length until 
