CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
259 
and the water-rattler: “The water-rattler don’t give you no 
advance notice—the ‘his-s-s’ and the thrust come right together, 
so’s when ye hear ’em hiss you’re done bit.” 
When I was a very small boy I learned something of the 
details of a young country school teacher who was bitten by a 
large diamond-back. The lad had been down in the woodland 
one fine spring day, on Sunday, while members of the house¬ 
hold were sitting around enjoying their week-end rest. Soon 
the young fellow, an admirable chap, came running in greatly 
excited and grief-stricken announcing the fact that the two of 
them had come upon a rattler and that his dog had been bitten 
and killed. Filled with compassion for the little boy, who hap¬ 
pened to be one of his students, he went with him immediately 
to hunt the villain down and slay him. Being shown to the 
exact spot, he commenced beating the bushes here and there, 
directing his strokes to whichever cluster of weeds and bushes 
appeared the most likely one in which he would have concealed 
himself to make a stand, by-passing a small cluster of bushes 
concealing the deadly villain. He had not yet learned that he 
could not trust his eyes, and it cost him his life. 
A bird hunter was once out with dog ajtd gun one fine spring 
day. Seeing the dog make a beautiful point, he drew in near. 
Seeing himself menaced on all sides the rattler (for that was 
what it proved to be) commenced singing his rattles with head 
and neck protruding from a deposit of wiregrass near one of 
these gopher holes. The hunter stepped a pace or two back¬ 
wards, unloading the contents of his shotgun into the coil of 
the rattler. The dog made the mistake of thinking that this 
was his master’s signal to rush in for the kill. The load of shot 
had completely severed the reptile’s body at a point about 
twelve inches below the head. The dog seized the business 
end of the serpent as he was accustomed to do when retrieving 
quail and was bitten. The owner of the dog returned from the 
hunt alone—this sad experience taught him some things about 
rattlers. 
Still more unbelievable is the fact that there is a definite 
menace in the carcass of the rattler until the flesh is entirely 
dead. There is a prevailing myth to the effect that one will 
