FASCINATION OF SNAKES 
tongue of the snake, so constant in its motions, naturally 
attracts, as would any moving object, the attention of 
small creatures suitable for food. Secondly, a state of 
catalepsy, due to nervous shock and terror, is a common 
event in the lives of various creatures. It is not the 
fascination of the snake, but an overpowering sense of 
dread that overcomes the bird or mammal upon which 
the anaconda is steadily advancing. Another legend 
concerning the snake is, that it lubricates its prey before 
swallowing it. This is sheer invention. The actual 
swallowing takes place without any such lubrication, 
which indeed, with the small salivary glands at the dis- 
posal of the snake, would be impossible. But it occa- 
sionally happens that after swallowing, the object 
swallowed is disgorged by fear or other emotion. Then 
it emerges into the daylight, covered of course with the 
viscid secretions of the cesophagus or stomach, a circum- 
stance which may readily have given rise to the com- 
monly held view. The anaconda feeds principally upon 
reptiles, fishes, and mammals—in fact, upon anything 
that comes handy. A catholic taste in meat is the pre- 
vailing fashion among snakes, there being but rare ex- 
ceptions, such as the egg-eating snake of Africa, Dasy- 
peltts scabra. Its habit of lurking in or by streams, is 
well suited to its tastes ; for all mammals must come and 
drink at times. The murky backwaters of South 
America do not lend themselves to clear vision ; and it is 
therefore not surprising to learn that in the anaconda 
the sense of sight does not help it so much in detecting 
its prey as the sense of hearing and then touch. It 
is said that when rats are introduced into a cage con- 
taining this serpent it does not begin to “ take notice ”’ 
until the rats begin to squeak. Their dolorous notes 
arouse the attention of the snake ; it pricks up its ears 
so to say, and on the first contact with the exploring 
rodents winds its deadly coil round them. Like the 
259 
