A SERPENT MYSTERY
A new feeling about snakes--Common snakes of the country--A barren
weedy patch--Discovery of a large black snake--Watching for its
reappearance--Seen going to its den--The desire to see it again--A
vain search--Watching a bat--The black serpent reappears at my feet--
Emotions and conjectures--Melanism--My baby sister and a strange
snake--The mystery solved.
It was not until after the episode related in the last chapter and the
discovery that a serpent was not necessarily dangerous to human
beings, therefore a creature to be destroyed at sight and pounded to a
pulp lest it should survive and escape before sunset, that I began to
appreciate its unique beauty and singularity. Then, somewhat later, I
met with an adventure which produced another and a new feeling in me,
that sense of something supernatural in the serpent which appears to
have been universal among peoples in a primitive state of culture and
still survives in some barbarous or semi-barbarous countries, and in
others, like Hindustan, which have inherited an ancient civilization.
The snakes I was familiar with as a boy up to this time were all of
comparatively small size, the largest being the snake-with-a-cross,
described in an early chapter. The biggest specimen I have ever found
of this ophidian was under four feet in length; but the body is thick,
as in all the pit vipers. Then, there was the green-and-black snake
described in the last chapter, an inhabitant of the house, which
seldom exceeded three feet; and another of the same genus, the most
common snake in the country. One seldom took a walk or ride on the
plain without seeing it. It was in size and shape like our common
grass-snake, and was formerly classed by naturalists in the same
genus, Coronella. It is quite beautiful, the pale greenish-grey body,
mottled with black, being decorated with two parallel bright red lines
extending from the neck to the tip of the fine-pointed tail. Of the
others the most interesting was a still smaller snake, brightly
coloured, the belly with alternate bands of crimson and bright blue.
This snake was regarded by every one as exceedingly venomous and most
dangerous on account of its irascible temper and habit of coming at
you and hissing loudly, its head and neck raised, and striking at your
legs. But this was all swagger on the snake's part: it was not
venomous at all, and could do no more harm by biting than a young dove
in its nest by puffing itself up and striking at an intrusive hand
with its soft beak.
Then one day I came upon a snake quite unknown to me: I had never
heard of the existence of such a snake in our parts, and I imagine its
appearance would have strongly affected any one in any land, even in
those abounding in big snakes. The spot, too, in our plantation, where
I found it, served to make its singular appearance more impressive.
There existed at that time a small piece of waste ground about half an
acre in extent, where there were no trees and where nothing planted by
man would grow. It was at the far end of the plantation, adjoining the
thicket of fennel and the big red willow tree on the edge of the moat
described in another chapter. This ground had been ploughed and dug up
again and again, and planted with trees and shrubs of various kinds
which were supposed to grow on any soil, but they had always
languished and died, and no wonder, since the soil was a hard white
clay resembling china clay. But although trees refused to grow there
it was always clothed in a vegetation of its own; all the hardiest
weeds were there, and covered the entire barren area to the depth of a
man's knees. These weeds had thin wiry stalks and small sickly leaves
and flowers, and would die each summer long before their time. This
barren piece of ground had a great attraction for me as a small boy,
and I visited it daily and would roam about it among the miserable
half-dead weeds with the sun-baked clay showing between the brown
stalks, as if it delighted me as much as the alfalfa field, blue and
fragrant in its flowering-time and swarming with butterflies.
One hot day in December I had been standing perfectly still for a few
minutes among the dry weeds when a slight rustling sound came from
near my feet, and glancing down I saw the head and neck of a large
black serpent moving slowly past me. In a moment or two the flat head
was lost to sight among the close-growing weeds, but the long body
continued moving slowly by--so slowly that it hardly appeared to move,
and as the creature must have been not less than six feet long, and
probably more, it took a very long time, while I stood thrilled with
terror, not daring to make the slightest movement, gazing down upon
it. Although so long it was not a thick snake, and as it moved on over
the white ground it had the appearance of a coal-black current flowing
past me--a current not of water or other liquid but of some such
element as quicksilver moving on in a rope-like stream. At last it
vanished, and turning I fled from the ground, thinking that never
again would I venture into or near that frightfully dangerous spot in
spite of its fascination.
Nevertheless I did venture. The image of that black mysterious serpent
was always in my mind from the moment of waking in the morning until I
fell asleep at night. Yet I never said a word about the snake to any
one: it was my secret, and I knew it was a dangerous secret, but I did
not want to be told not to visit that spot again. And I simply could
not keep away from it; the desire to look again at that strange being
was too strong. I began to visit the place again, day after day, and
would hang about the borders of the barren weedy ground watching and
listening, and still no black serpent appeared. Then one day I
ventured, though in fear and trembling, to go right in among the
weeds, and still finding nothing began to advance step by step until I
was right in the middle of the weedy ground and stood there a long
time, waiting and watching. All I wanted was just to see it once more,
and I had made up my mind that immediately on its appearance, if it
did appear, I would take to my heels. It was when standing in this
central spot that once again that slight rustling sound, like that of
a few days before, reached my straining sense and sent an icy chill
down my back. And there, within six inches of my toes, appeared the
black head and neck, followed by the long, seemingly endless body. I
dared not move, since to have attempted flight might have been fatal.
The weeds were thinnest here, and the black head and slow-moving black
coil could be followed by the eye for a little distance. About a yard
from me there was a hole in the ground about the circumference of a
breakfast-cup at the top, and into this hole the serpent put his head
and slowly, slowly drew himself in, while I stood waiting until the
whole body to the tip of the tail had vanished and all danger was
over.
I had seen my wonderful creature, my black serpent unlike any serpent
in the land, and the excitement following the first thrill of terror
was still on me, but I was conscious of an element of delight in it,
and I would not now resolve not to visit the spot again. Still, I was
in fear, and kept away three or four days. Thinking about the snake I
formed the conclusion that the hole he had taken refuge in was his
den, where he lived, that he was often out roaming about in search of
prey, and could hear footsteps at a considerable distance, and that
when I walked about at that spot my footsteps disturbed him and caused
him to go straight to his hole to hide himself from a possible danger.
It struck me that if I went to the middle of the ground and stationed
myself near the hole, I would be sure to see him. It would indeed be
difficult to see him any other way, since one could never know in
which direction he had gone out to seek for food. But no, it was too
dangerous: the serpent might come upon me unawares and would probably
resent always finding a boy hanging about his den. Still, I could not
endure to think I had seen the last of him, and day after day I
continued to haunt the spot, and going a few yards into the little
weedy wilderness would stand and peer, and at the slightest rustling
sound of an insect or falling leaf would experience a thrill of
fearful joy, and still the black majestical creature failed to appear.
One day in my eagerness and impatience I pushed my way through the
crowded weeds right to the middle of the ground and gazed with a mixed
delight and fear at the hole: would he find me there, as on a former
occasion? Would he come? I held my breath, I strained my sight and
hearing in vain, the hope and fear of his appearance gradually died
out, and I left the place bitterly disappointed and walked to a spot
about fifty yards away, where mulberry trees grew on the slope of the
mound inside the moat.
Looking up into the masses of big clustering leaves over my head I
spied a bat hanging suspended from a twig. The bats, I must explain,
in that part of the world, that illimitable plain where there were no
caverns and old buildings and other dark places to hide in by day, are
not so intolerant of the bright light as in other lands. They do not
come forth until evening, but by day they are content to hitch
themselves to the twig of a tree under a thick cluster of leaves and
rest there until it is dark.
Gazing up at this bat suspended under a big green leaf, wrapped in his
black and buff-coloured wings as in a mantle, I forgot my
disappointment, forgot the serpent, and was so entirely taken up with
the bat that I paid no attention to a sensation like a pressure or a
dull pain on the instep of my right foot. Then the feeling of pressure
increased and was very curious and was as if I had a heavy object like
a crowbar lying across my foot, and at length I looked down at my
feet, and to my amazement and horror spied the great black snake
slowly drawing his long coil across my instep! I dared not move, but
gazed down fascinated with the sight of that glistening black
cylindrical body drawn so slowly over my foot. He had come out of the
moat, which was riddled at the sides with rat-holes, and had most
probably been there hunting for rats when my wandering footsteps
disturbed him and sent him home to his den; and making straight for
it, as his way was, he came to my foot, and instead of going round
drew himself over it. After the first spasm of terror I knew I was
perfectly safe, that he would not turn upon me so long as I remained
quiescent, and would presently be gone from sight. And that was my
last sight of him; in vain I watched and waited for him to appear on
many subsequent days: but that last encounter had left in me a sense
of a mysterious being, dangerous on occasion as when attacked or
insulted, and able in some cases to inflict death with a sudden blow,
but harmless and even friendly or beneficent towards those who
regarded it with kindly and reverent feelings in place of hatred. It
is in part the feeling of the Hindoo with regard to the cobra which
inhabits his house and may one day accidently cause his death, but is
not to be persecuted.
Possibly something of that feeling about serpents has survived in me;
but in time, as my curiosity about all wild creatures grew, as I
looked more on them with the naturalist's eyes, the mystery of the
large black snake pressed for an answer. It seemed impossible to
believe that any species of snake of large size and black as jet or
anthracite coal in colour could exist in any inhabited country without
being known, yet no person I interrogated on the subject had ever seen
or heard of such an ophidian. The only conclusion appeared to be that
this snake was the sole one of its kind in the land. Eventually I
heard of the phenomenon of melanism in animals, less rare in snakes
perhaps than in animals of other classes, and I was satisfied that the
problem was partly solved. My serpent was a black individual of a
species of some other colour. But it was not one of our common
species-not one of those I knew. It was not a thick blunt-bodied
serpent like our venomous pit-viper, our largest snake, and though in
shape it conformed to our two common harmless species it was twice as
big as the biggest specimens I had ever seen of them. Then I recalled
that two years before my discovery of the black snake, our house had
been visited by a large unknown snake which measured two or three
inches over six feet and was similar in form to my black serpent. The
colour of this strange and unwelcome visitor was a pale greenish grey,
with numerous dull black mottlings and small spots. The story of its
appearance is perhaps worth giving.
It happened that I had a baby sister who could just toddle about on
two legs, having previously gone on all-fours. One midsummer day she
was taken up and put on a rug in the shade of a tree, twenty-five
yards from the sitting-room door, and left alone there to amuse
herself with her dolls and toys. After half an hour or so she appeared
at the door of the sitting-room where her mother was at work, and
standing there with wide-open astonished eyes and moving her hand and
arm as if to point to the place she came from, she uttered the
mysterious word _ku-ku_. It is a wonderful word which the southern
South American mother teaches her child from the moment it begins to
toddle, and is useful in a desert and sparsely inhabited country where
biting, stinging, and other injurious creatures are common. For babies
when they learn to crawl and to walk are eager to investigate and have
no natural sense of danger. Take as an illustration the case of the
gigantic hairy brown spider, which is excessively abundant in summer
and has the habit of wandering about as if always seeking something--
"something it cannot find, it knows not what"; and in these wanderings
it comes in at the open door and rambles about the room. At the sight
of such a creature the baby is snatched up with the cry of _ku-ku_ and
the intruder slain with a broom or other weapon and thrown out. _Ku-
ku_ means dangerous, and the terrified gestures and the expression of
the nurse or mother when using the word sink into the infant mind, and
when that sound or word is heard there is an instant response, as in
the case of a warning note or cry uttered by a parent bird which
causes the young to fly away or crouch down and hide.
The child's gestures and the word it used caused her mother to run to
the spot where it had been left in the shade, and to her horror she
saw there a huge serpent coiled up in the middle of the rug. Her cries
brought my father on the scene, and seizing a big stick he promptly
dispatched the snake.
The child, said everybody, had had a marvellous escape, and as she had
never previously seen a snake and could not intuitively know it as
dangerous, or _ku-ku_, it was conjectured that she had made some
gesture or attempted to push the snake away when it came on to the
rug, and that it had reared its head and struck viciously at her.
Recalling this incident I concluded that this unknown serpent, which
had been killed because it wanted to share my baby sister's rug, and
my black serpent were one and the same species--possibly they had been
mates--and that they had strayed a distance away from their native
place or else were the last survivors of a colony of their kind in our
plantation. It was not until twelve or fourteen years later that I
discovered that it was even as I had conjectured. At a distance of
about forty miles from my home, or rather from the home of my boyhood
where I no longer lived, I found a snake that was new to me, the
_Philodryas scotti_ of naturalists, a not uncommon Argentine snake,
and recognized it as the same species as the one found coiled up on my
little sister's rug and presumably as my mysterious black serpent.
Some of the specimens which I measured exceeded six feet in length.