GARTER SNAKES--RATTLE-SNAKES--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 rattle-snake. 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 it, 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 rattle snake, 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 rattle snake is a dangerous reptile, and its bite
causes death, unless the wound be burned or cut out. The Indians apply
different sorts of herbs to the wound. They have several plants, known by
the names of rattle snake root, rattle snake 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 entirely overcame
all thoughts of his own personal danger. [Footnote: A fact related to me
by a gentleman from the State of Vermont, as an instance of impulsive
feeling overcoming natural timidity.]
"The large garter snake which you saw, my dear lady, is comparatively
harmless. It lives on toads and frogs, and robs the nests of young birds,
and also pilfers the eggs. 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.
[Illustration: A BOY HERO]
"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, he 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 it, 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 very great extent; till, after a long while, it was fairly gorged,
and then it slid down its hole, leaving its head and neck 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 contrive to extract the fangs
containing the venom from the Cobra da 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
paralyzed 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 rattle-snake 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 know 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 once saw a
half-grown kitten eat a live green frog which she first brought into the
parlour, playing with it as with 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 been 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 her little ones, 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 envelop the eggs, which she leaves in some
warm spot, where she secures them from danger: some glue a leaf down, and
overlap it, to insure it from being agitated by the winds, or discovered
by birds. There is a curious spider, commonly known as the nursing spider,
which 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 gray 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."