GARTER-SNAKES--RATTLESNAKES--ANECDOTE OF A LITTLE BOY--FISHERMAN AND
SNAKE--SNAKE CHARMERS--SPIDERS--LAND-TORTOISE.
"Nurse, I have been so terrified. I was walking in the meadow, and a
great snake--so big, I am sure"--and Lady Mary held out her arms as wide
as she could--"came out of a tuft of grass. His tongue was like a scarlet
thread, and had two sharp points; and, do you know, he raised his wicked
head, and hissed at me; I was so frightened that I ran away. I think, Mrs.
Frazer, it must have been a rattlesnake. Only feel now how my heart beats"
--and the little girl took her nurse's hand, and laid it on her heart.
"What colour was the snake, my dear?" asked her nurse.
"It was green and black, chequered all over; and it was very large, and
opened its mouth very wide, and showed its red tongue. It would have
killed me if it had bitten me, would it not, nurse?"
"It would not have harmed you, my lady or even if it had bitten you, it
would not have killed you. The chequered green snake of Canada is not
poisonous. It was more afraid of you than you were of it, I make no doubt."
"Do you think it was a rattlesnake, nurse?"
"No, my dear; there are no snakes of that kind in Lower Canada, and very
few below Toronto. The winters are too cold for them, but there are plenty
in the western part of the province, where the summers are warmer, and the
winters milder. The rattlesnake is a dangerous reptile, and its bite
causes death, unless the wound be burnt or cut out. The Indians apply
different sorts of herbs to the wound. They have several plants, known by
the names of rattlesnake root, rattlesnake weed, and snake root. It is a
good thing that the rattlesnake gives warning of its approach before it
strikes the traveller with its deadly fangs. Some people think that the
rattle is a sign of fear, and that it would not wound people, if it were
not afraid they were coming near to hurt it. I will tell you a story, Lady
Mary, about a brave little boy. He went out nutting one day with another
boy about his own age; and while they were in the grove gathering nuts, a
large black snake, that was in a low tree, dropped down and suddenly
coiled itself round the throat of his companion. The child's screams were
dreadful; his eyes were starting from his head with pain and terror. The
other, regardless of the danger, opened a clasp-knife that he had in his
pocket, and seizing the snake near the head, cut it apart, and so saved
his friend's life, who was well-nigh strangled by the tight folds of the
reptile, which was one of a very venomous species, the bite of which
generally proves fatal."
"What a brave little fellow!" said Lady Mary. "You do not think it was
cruel, nurse, to kill the snake?" she added, looking up in Mrs. Frazer's
face.
"No, Lady Mary, for he did it to save a fellow-creature from a painful
death; and we are taught by God's word that the soul of man is precious in
the sight of his Creator. We should be cruel were we wantonly to inflict
pain upon the least of God's creatures; but to kill them in self-defence,
or for necessary food, is not cruel; for when God made Adam, He gave him
dominion, or power, over the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air,
and every creeping thing. It was an act of great courage and humanity in
the little boy, who perilled his own life to save that of his helpless
comrade, especially as he was not naturally a child of much courage, and
was very much afraid of snakes; but love for his friend overcame all
thought of his own personal danger. [Footnote: A fact related to me by an
old gentleman from the State of Vermont, as an instance of impulsive
feeling overcoming natural timidity.]
"The large garter-snake, that which you saw, my dear lady, is
comparatively harmless. It lives on toads and frogs, and robs the nests of
young birds, and the eggs also. Its long forked tongue enables it to catch
insects of different kinds; it will even eat fish, and for that purpose
frequents the water as well as the black snake.
"I heard a gentleman once relate a circumstance to my father that
surprised me a good deal. He was fishing one day in a river near his own
house, but, being tired, seated himself on a log or fallen tree, where his
basket of fish also stood; when a large garter-snake came up the log, and
took a small fish out of his basket, which it speedily swallowed. The
gentleman, seeing the snake so bold as not to mind his presence, took a
small rock-bass by the tail, and half in joke held it towards him, when,
to his great surprise, the snake glided towards him, took the fish out of
his hand, and sliding away with its prize to a hole beneath the log, began
by slow degrees to swallow it, stretching its mouth and the skin of its
neck to a great extent; till, after a long while, it was fairly gorged,
and then slid down its hole, leaving its neck and head only to be seen."
"I should have been so frightened, nurse, if I had been the gentleman,
when the snake came to take the fish," said Lady Mary.
"The gentleman was well aware of the nature of the reptile, and knew that
it would not bite him. I have read of snakes of the most poisonous kinds
being tamed and taught all manner of tricks. There are in India and Egypt
people that are called snake-charmers, who will contrive to extract the
fangs containing the venom from the Cobra capella, or hooded snake; which
then become quite harmless. These snakes are very fond of music, and will
come out of the leather bag or basket that their master carries them in,
and will dance or run up his arms, twining about his neck, and even
entering his mouth. They do not tell people that the poison-teeth have
been extracted, so that it is thought to be the music that keeps the snake
from biting. The snake has a power of charming birds and small animals by
fixing its eye steadily upon them, when the little creatures become
paralysed with fear, either standing quite still, or coming nearer and
nearer to their cruel enemy, till they are within his reach. The cat has
the same power, and can by this art draw birds from the tops of trees
within her reach. These little creatures seem unable to resist the
temptation of approaching her, and, even when driven away, will return
from a distance to the same spot, seeking, instead of shunning, the danger
which is certain to prove fatal to them in the end. Some writers assert
that all wild animals have this power in the eye, especially those of the
cat tribe, as the lion and tiger, leopard and panther. Before they spring
upon their prey, the eye is always steadily fixed, the back lowered, the
neck stretched out, and the tail waved from side to side; if the eye is
averted, they lose the animal, and do not make the spring."
"Are there any other kinds of snakes in Canada, nurse," asked Lady Mary,
"besides the garter-snake?"
"Yes, my lady, several; the black snake, which is the most deadly next to
the rattlesnake, is sometimes called the puff-adder, as it inflates the
skin of the head and neck when angry. The copper-bellied snake is also
poisonous. There is a small snake of a deep grass green colour sometimes
seen in the fields and open copse-woods. I do not think it is dangerous; I
never heard of its biting any one. The stare-worm is also harmless. I am
not sure whether the black snakes that live in the water are the same as
the puff or black adder. It is a great blessing, my dear, that these deadly
snakes are so rare, and do so little harm to man. Indeed, I believe they
would never harm him, were they let alone; but if trodden upon, they cannot
tell that it was by accident, and so put forth the weapons that God has
armed them with in self-defence. The Indians in the north-west, I have been
told, eat snakes, after cutting off their heads. The cat also eats snakes,
leaving the head; she will also catch and eat frogs, a thing I have
witnessed myself, and know to be true. [Footnote: I saw a half grown kitten
eat a live green frog, which she first caught and brought into the parlour,
playing with it like a mouse.] One day a snake fixed itself on a little
girl's arm and wound itself around it; the mother of the child was too much
terrified to tear the deadly creature off, but filled the air with cries.
Just then a cat came out of the house, and quick as lightning sprang upon
the snake, and fastened on its neck, which caused the reptile to uncoil its
folds, and it fell to the earth in the grasp of the cat; thus the child's
life was saved, and the snake killed. Thus you see, my dear, that God
provided a preserver for this little one when no help was nigh; perhaps the
child cried to Him for aid, and He heard her and saved her by means of the
cat."
Lady Mary was much interested in all that Mrs. Frazer had told her; she
remembered having heard some one say that the snake would swallow her own
young ones, and she asked her nurse if it was true, and if they laid eggs.
"The snake will swallow her young ones," said Mrs. Frazer. "I have seen
the garter-snake open her mouth and let the little ones run into it when
danger was nigh; the snake also lays eggs: I have seen and handled them
often; they are not covered with a hard, brittle shell, like that of a
hen, but with a sort of whitish skin, like leather; they are about the
size of a blackbird's egg, long in shape, some are rounder and larger.
They are laid in some warm place, where the heat of the sun and earth
hatches them; but though the mother does not brood over them, as a hen
does over her eggs, she seems to take great care of them, and defends them
from their many enemies by hiding them out of sight in the singular manner
I have just told you. This love of offspring, my dear child, has been
wisely given to all mothers, from the human mother down to the very lowest
of the insect tribe. The fiercest beast of prey loves its young, and
provides food and shelter for them; forgetting its savage nature to play
with and caress them. Even the spider, which is a disagreeable insect,
fierce and unloving to its fellows, displays the tenderest care for its
brood, providing a safe retreat for them in the fine silken cradle she
spins to envelope the eggs, which she leaves in some warm spot, where she
secures them from danger; some glue a leaf down, and overlap it, to ensure
it from being agitated by the winds, or discovered by birds. There is a
curious spider, commonly known as the nursing spider, who carries her sack
of eggs with her, wherever she goes; and when the young ones come out,
they cluster on her back, and so travel with her; when a little older,
they attach themselves to the old one by threads, and run after her in a
train."
Lady Mary laughed, and said she should like to see the funny little
spiders all tied to their mother, trotting along behind her.
"If you go into the meadow, my dear," said Mrs. Frazer, "you will see on
the larger stones some pretty shining little cases, quite round, looking
like grey satin."
"Nurse, I know what they are," said Lady Mary; "last year I was playing in
the green meadow, and I found a piece of granite with several of these
satin cases. I called them silk pies, for they looked like tiny mince-pies.
I tried to pick one off, but it stuck so hard that I could not; so I asked
the gardener to lend me his knife, and when I raised the crust, it had a
little rim under the top, and I slipped the knife in, and what do you think
I saw? The pie was full of tiny black shining spiders, and they ran out,
such a number of them,--more than I could count, they ran so fast. I was
sorry I opened the crust, for it was a cold, cold day, and the little
spiders must have been frozen out of their warm air-tight house."
"They are able to bear a great deal of cold, Lady Mary--all insects can;
and even when frozen hard, so that they will break if any one tries to
bend them, yet when spring comes again to warm them, they revive, and are
as full of life as ever. Caterpillars thus frozen will become butterflies
in due time. Spiders, and many other creatures, lie torpid during the
winter, and then revive in the same way as dormice, bears, and marmots do."
"Nurse, please will you tell me something about tortoises and
porcupines?" said Lady Mary.
"I cannot tell you a great deal about the tortoise, my dear," replied her
nurse. "I have seen them sometimes on the shores of the lakes, and once or
twice I have met with the small land-tortoise, in the woods on the banks of
the Otonabee river. The shell that covers these reptiles is black and
yellow, divided into squares--those which I saw were about the size of my
two hands. They are very harmless creatures, living chiefly on roots and
bitter herbs: perhaps they eat insects as well. They lie buried in the sand
during the long winters, in a torpid state: they lay a number of eggs,
about the size of a blackbird's, the shell of which is tough and soft, like
a snake's egg. The old tortoise buries these in the loose sand near the
water's edge, and leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. The
little tortoise, when it comes out of the shell, is about as big as a large
spider--it is a funny-looking thing. I have heard some of the Indians say
that they dive into the water, and swim, as soon as they are hatched; but
this I am not sure of. I saw one about the size of a crown-piece that was
caught in a hole in the sand; it was very lively, and ran along the table,
making a rattling noise with its hard shell as it moved. An old one that
one of my brothers brought in he put under a large heavy box, meaning to
feed and keep it; but in the morning it was gone: it had lifted the edge of
the box and was away, nor could he find out how it had contrived to make
its escape from the room. This is all that I know about the Canadian
land-tortoise."