Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-09-11
STRANGE SUPERSTITION.

Ahiect CreduIty In q Foolish Supersti-
tion--A Negro Deacon's Wonderful %
Experience.
Popular Science Monthly for September.
A very characteristic instance of this
sbiect credulty is the serpent-charm
mperstition. Millions of our country
men still believe in what they call snake
charming; i. e., the ability of certain
reptiles to paralyze smaller animals by
the magic power of their eyes, belief
whose tenacity and extravaganza absurd
ity nearly justify Pierre Gasseodi's
complaint that in regard to ali occult
phenomena the most supernatural theo-
~ is sure to become the popular one.
Blacksnakes overtake their prey by su-
perior swiftness and strangle them by
superior strength; but the fact that
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 other
wise intelligent persons listen gravely to
stories about linnets who hoped
from branch to branch into the pentrs-
liza of a snake-infested bush, or
swallows who paused in their head
long fight, lowered with trembling
wings for a minute or two, and then
descended in a reluctant futter toward
ditch or hedge where the enemy lay con-
cealed, a coiled snake with pair of
twinkling optics that glittered like
demons eyes, while the doomed bird
came nearer and nearer, and finally
saved the serpent the trouble of swallow
ing it by jumping down its throat. The
natives of our southern coast states
sscribe the same faculty to lizards and
toads; and the darkeys OF The Georgia
river plantations, if asked to account for
the frequent disappearance OF sucking
pigs, used to explain that they had been
charmed away by alligators, who, with
out leaving their native element, were
able to draw pig clear across ten-acre
field by cooking their eyes in peculiar
way! But the arch-conjurer of our con.
tinent is still the sneaking rattlesnake,
whose power for mischief is thought to
be hardly limited by the capacity OF its
stomach. Gratuitous malevolence, &C
cording to current stories, has often in
duced this symbol of the tempter to be-
witch dogs and cattle, merely for the
sake of testing the efficacy of its magic
eyes first,iand of its poison afterward;
nay, colored deacon of Navasota, Tex,
ahirms that he himself was once
charmed by ast-belli led rattle title,
weekly with a circumstantal account
of his adventure. On his way home
from meeting he took short cut across
field "a sweet potato field his neighbors
suspect), and was just in the act OF
climbing a fence when his eye was
caught by a piercing glitter in the
weeds, a sudden, lash-like CLEAN that
went through him like electric shock,
and made him grab the top rail with
convulsive grip. He tried to jump
down, but could not; his legs were par
alyzed, and feeling of numbness began
to creep up his body and toward his
head, while his eyes became 30 rigid that
he could not even wink. He found that
he could howl, which he did, with all
his might; but, instead of being scared,
the reptile wagged his tail, and came q
little nearer. He gave himself up for
lost, when he suddenly thought of a big
prayer book in his pocket, and in the
moment when the serpent brsced itself
fer spring, he hurled at its head copy
Of Bakers "Saint's Rest" (Tract Socie-
ty edition, Svo), which, either by its
weight or by its orthodox vigor, stagger-
ed the fiend for a second or two, during
which the deacon effected his escape.