_Newspaper Folk Lore_ (Vol. ix., p. 29.).--Although (apparently unknown to
LONDONER) the correspondent of _The Times_, under "Naval Intelligence," in
December last, with his usual accuracy, glanced at the "snake lore" merely
to laugh at the fable, I have written to a gallant cousin of mine, now
serving as a naval officer at Portsmouth, and subjoin his reply to my
letter; it will, I think, amply suffice to disabuse a LONDONER'S, or his
friend's, mind of any impression of credence to be attached to it, as
regards the snake:
"H.M.S. Excellent.--Jonathan Smith, gunner's mate of the Hastings,
joined this ship from the Hastings in July; went on two months' leave,
but came back in August very ill, and was immediately sent to the
hospital for general dropsy, of which he shortly after died, and he was
buried in Kingston churchyard, being followed to the grave by a part of
the ship's company of the Excellent.
"Shortly before his death a worm, not a snake, came from him. It was
nine inches in length; but though of such formidable dimensions, such
things are common enough in the East Indies, where this man must have
swallowed it, when very small, in water. They seldom are the cause of
death, and, in the present instance, had nothing whatever to do with
it. The story of the snake got into some of the papers, but was
afterwards contradicted in several."