The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-09-18
The Serpent.Cha Superstition.

a very characteristic instance of tbi,
abject credulity is the serpent-charn
superstition. Millions of our country.
men still believe in what they call snake
charming. e., the ability of certain
reptiles to paralyze smaller animals by
the magic power of their eyes, a belief
whose tenacity and extravagant absurd
lty nearly justify Pierre Gassendi's COM
plant that in regard to all occult phe-
nomena the most supernatural theory is
sure to become the most popular one.
blacksnakes overtake their prey by SUI
perlor swiftness and strangle them bv
superior strength; but the fact that such
sluggish creatures as the Indian cobra
and the American rattlesnake are able
to capture birds and squirrels seemed to
demand an abnormal explanation, and
the demand, as usual, was equaled by
the supply. Truth-loving and otherwise
Intelligent persons listened oravely to
stories about linnets who hoped from
branch to branch into the penetralia of
a snake-lnfested bush, or swallows who
paused in their headlong flight, lowered
with tremulous wings fora minute or two.
and then descended in reluctant flint
ter toward ditch or hedge where the
enemy lay concealed, a coiled snake
with a pair of twinkling optics that gilt
tered like demons eyes, while the DOOM
ed bird came nearer and nearer, and
finally saved the serpent the trouble of
swallowing it by hopping down its throat
The natives of our Southern coast States
ascrlbe the same faculty to lizards and
toads, and the darkies of the Georgia
river plantations, if asked to account
for the frequent disappearance of suck
ing pigs, used to explain that they had
been charmed away by alligators, who.
without leaving their native element.
were able to draw pig clear across
ten-acre field by cooking their eyes in
peculiar way! But the arch-coniurer of
our continent is still the sneaking rattle
snake, whose power for mischief is
thought to be hardly limited bv the ca
pacity of its stomach. Gratuitous ma
levolence, according to current stories.
has often induced this symbol of the
tempter to bewitch dogs and cattle.
merely for the sake of testing the eff
,acy of its magic ewes first.
md of its poison afterward: nav. a col
,rd deacon of Navasota, Texas, affirms /
hat he himself was once charmed by a |
rattle-snake, and favored the
ocal weekly with a circumstantial ac-
'ount OF his adventure. On his wav
rom meeting he took short cut across a
leld Ga sweet-potato field his neighbors
and was just in the act of
fence when his eve was
aught by piercing glitter in the weeds,
, sudden tiash-like gleam that went
through him like an electric shock, and
made him grab the top rail with a CON
ulsive grip. He tried to jump down.
ut could not; his legs were paralyzed,
nd a feeling Of numbness began to
reep up his body and toward his heart,
'hile his eyes became SO rigid that he
ould not even wink. He found that he
ould howl, which he did with all his
night; but, instead of being scared the
eptile wagged his tail and came little
carer. He gave himself up for lost,
hen he suddenly thought of a bic
rayer-book in his pocket, and in the
loment when the serpent braced itself
u spring, he hurled at its head "a copy
| Baxter's & Saints Rest (Tract So
ety edition, Svo), which, either by its I
eight or by its orthodox vigor, stag
cred the fiend for a second or two, dur
~ which the deacon effected his escape.
-Foputdr Science Monthly. 4