This order of animals is greatly diversified in their size, color, and
qualities. Some are but five inches in length, and others reach the
enormous extent of thirty feet. Some are inoffensive, and others are in
the highest degree venomous. They are in general regarded with horror
by mankind, and a universal instinct seems to call upon us to destroy
them.
_Anecdotes._--Mr. Strohecker, of Pennsylvania, had a daughter three
years of age, who, for a number of successive days, was remarked to
leave home with a piece of bread in her hand, and go to a considerable
distance. The mother's attention was attracted by the circumstance, who
desired the father to follow the infant, and observe what she did with
the bread. On coming up to her, he found she was busy feeding several
snakes called bastard-rattlesnakes. He immediately took the infant
away, and proceeded to his house for his gun, and on returning killed
two of them at a shot, and another a few days afterwards. The child
called these reptiles, in the same manner as chickens are called; and
when her father told her she would certainly be bitten by them if she
attempted it again, she innocently replied, "No, father, they won't
bite me; they only eat the bread I give them."
It has been a common opinion that serpents possess a peculiar power of
fascination. This is probably a vulgar error; yet the following story
is told of the daughter of a Dutch farmer near Niagara. It was on a
warm summer day that she was sent to spread out wet clothes upon some
shrubbery near the house. Her mother conceived that she remained longer
than was necessary, and seeing her standing unoccupied at some
distance, she called to her several times, but no answer was returned.
On approaching, she found her daughter pale, motionless, and fixed in
an erect posture. The perspiration rolled down her brow, and her hands
were clinched convulsively. A large rattlesnake lay on a log opposite
the girl, waving his head from side to side, and kept his eyes
steadfastly fastened upon her. The mother instantly struck the snake
with a stick; and the moment he made off, the girl recovered herself,
and burst into tears, but was for some time so weak and agitated that
she could not walk home.