Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-07-31
DEADLY SNAKES AND HOGS,

Here-The American Pioneers Best
Friend-A Fight Between Sow and a
RattIesnake. s
A recent editorial published on the
subject of the terrible mortality from
snake bites in India, disclosed some
startling facts, the most surprising of
which is. the great number of persons
who perish annually in British India
from attacks by these reptiles, one au-
thority averring that {" in some years as
many as twenty thousand people are
killed by snakes in Hindoostan alone.
From what we read of India, it would
seem that the most densely populated
parts of that country are the most in
fected with poisonous reptiles. Exactly
the reverse of this is the case in Ameri-
ca, so far as our own country extends,
for here the more numerous the popula-
tion, the fewer snakes of the fatal kind,
though. we have probably a greater va
riety of deadly serpents than exists in
any other quarter of the globe. Among
these may be enumerated the several
species of moccasin, the copperhead, and
that purely American reptile, the rattle
snake, which. NJ. Button, in his article
on "Le Serpent a Sonette, says inhab-
its nearly all the countries of the New
World. Besides these and the other
varieties may be noticed the cotton
mouth of the marshes of the Lower
Mississippi, dark, short, muscular vi
per, with the inside of its mouth per-
fectly white, which turks in swampy
places, for whose bite no antidote is
known, but is quickly followed with GER
tain death.
There are two ways of accounting for
the superabundance of snakes in India.
One is by the superstitious veneration
of the Hindoos for the most deadly SER
penis, which leaves them unmolested,
and enables them to multiply without
limit.
The other and more convincing reason
for the vast number of snakes in India
is the scarcity of hogs in a country
where the use of swine flesh is prohib-
tied as an article of food. The Hindoo
despises the hog while he patronizes the
snake, and gets rewarded for his prefer
ence by his race being stung to death at
the rate of twenty thousand annually.
The Anglo-Saxon American differs
from the effete East Indian in this as in
most other respects. He kills the snake
and fosters the hog, who is decidedly
the most inveterate snake killer of the
two. When the Anglo-American under
takes the settlement of a new country
he wants three things above all others j:
an axe, a rifle, and hog. If he chances
to gointo the wilderness alone, however,
the hog soon follows as an inevitable
consequence. Just Ill proportion as the
hog multiplies, and increases In newly
settled country, in the same ratio do
;erpents and poisonous reptiles disap-
'ear. It is not meant to be implied that
ny such motive as snake-killing enters
to the calculations of the frontiersman
raising hogs. In general, he does
give the snakes that infest his neigh
thood thought. He kills them
tn they come in his way, and forgets
h. The hog does the most of that
of work. He is a very industrious
Yer, always roofing around in quest
o. nething to eat. In his incessant
seN for provender he oftimes disturbs
th%ake in his lair, who as a rule,
WoAprefer being left alone but the
hog Mt let him alone, but snaps him
betW his teeth, and devours him.
In are also active enemies of the
snake be found among the things thai
are Tel naturae, such as the deer, the
elk, etwhich kill by crushing him be
meath tr sharp hoofs. But these ami
mails OIL destroy the snake when h
comes liheir way. The hog goes a
hlm witt ne two-fold incentive of de
stroylnganenemy and devouring him
The reslt s, the snakes give up tn,
contest ftela while and glide off t,
some rky fastness or impenetrabl
fen.
The eg is marty impervious to tn
bite ofEhe most deadly serpent. Lik
the hel of the Greek fable he has bu
one asslable spot, which lies, not in hi
heel, 1t in hisneck. If the snak
chanceso strike him on the main arte
ry, whe it passes through the nee
near tn skin, the hog dies; if he
struck any other part of his body tn
wound a0unts to no more than til
p1ck OF hin would, the virus takin
no effect hatever. The ouadr1lpe
seems to haware of this one danger
and guardsgainst it with the skill of
veteran walpr.
EIhe write once witnessed a combs
between 81 and rattlesnake of til
largest kind as attention being attracte
to the scene the angry screams of til
hog. The slke lay In coil beneath
spreading IL oak. The broad, con
bative head Is raised rigidly about 81
inches over is coiled body, his eye
bright as diapnds, flashing fury, an
his forked tofue darting defiance at b
enemy. Evei muscle, now in tension
could be tracd. beneath his skin, viii
his tail, slight erected and tremulol
With nervous mercy, gave forth fro.
the tapering rtle at its extremity th;
peculiar, sharp ringing sound persc
never forgets no has heard it one
The sow, with ristles erect and tusl
bare, circled road the snake, gnashir
her teeth, gruntg and snarling at hi
with rage. She bowed game, but not
ing like the nery of her sinewy antag
mist. The sow mde divers demonstr
lions or feints, 0 which the snake r
sponded by stirling from half coil, b.
each time instan y recovering himsel
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