Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-09-10
STRANGE SUPERSTITION.

AFFECT Jredulty in Foolish supersti-
tion--A Negro Deacon's Wonderful (r)
Experience,
Popular Science Monthly for September
A very characteristic instance Of this
abiect credulty is the serpent-charm
superstition. Millions of our country
men still believe in what they call snake
charming; i. g., the ability of certain
reptiles to paralyze smaller animals by
the magic power of their eyes, a belief
whose tenacity and extravagant absurd.
ity nearly justify Pierre Gassendi's
complaint that in regard to all occult
phenomena the most supernatural theo-
ry is sure to become the popular one.
Blacksnakes overtake their prey by SUI
perior swiftness and strangle them by
superior strength; but the fact that
sluggish creatures as the Indian cobra
and the American rattlesnake are sble
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 pentra-
liza of a snake-infested bush, or
swallows who paused in their head
long flight, lowered with trembling
wings for a minute or two, and then
descended in a reluctant futter toward a
ditch or hedge where the enemy lay con-
cealed, a coiled snake with a 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
ascribe 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, we're
able to draw pig clear across a 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, sand of its poison afterward !;
nay, colored deacon Of Navasota, Tex,
afirms that he himself was once
charmed by hat-bellied rattle
snake, and favored the local
weekly with a circumstantal account
of his adventure. On his way nome
from meeting he took short cut across
a field Ca sweet potato field his neighbors
suspect), and was just in the act of
climbing fence when his eye was
caught by a piercing glitter in the
weeds, sudden, hash-like CLEAN that
went through him like electric shock,
and made him grab the top rail with q
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 so 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 a
little nearer. He gave himself up for
lost, when he suddenly thought of big
prayer book in his pocket, and in the
moment when the serpent braced itself
for 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 fend for second Or two, during
which the deacon effected his escape.