The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-09-11
The Serpent-Charm Superstition

A very characteristic instance of this
abject credulity is the serpent-charm
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, belief
whose tenacity and extravagant absurd
ity 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
perior swiftness and strangle them by
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 gravely to
stories about lnnets who hoped from
branch to branch into the penetralia of
a snake-infested bush, or swallows who
paused in their headlong flight, lowered
with tremulous wings for minute or two,
and then descended in reluctant fut-
ter toward ditch or hedge where the
enemy lay concealed, 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
swallowingit by hopping downits throat.
The natives of our Southern coast States
ascribe 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 a
ten-acre field by cooking their eyes in a
peculiar way! But the arch-conjurer of
our continent is still the sneaking rattle
snake, whose power for mischief is
thought to be hardly limited by 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
cacy of its magic eyes first,
and of its poison afterward; nay, a col
ord deacon of Navasota, Texas, affirms
that he himself was once charmed by
flat-bellied rattle-snake, and favored the
local weekly with a circumstantial ac-
count of his adventure. On his way
from meeting he took short cut across a
field Ga sweet-potato field his neighbors
suspect), and was just in the act of
climbing fence when his eye was
caught by piercing glitter in the weeds,
sudden fash-like CLEAN that went
through him like an electric shock, and
made him grab the top rail with con-
vulsive grip. He tried to jump down,
but could not; his legs were paralyzed,
and feeling of numbness began to
creep up his body and toward his heart,
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 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 braced itself
for spring, he hurled at its head a copy
of Bakers g Saints Rest (Tract So
ciety edition, Svo), which, either by its
weight or by its orthodox vigor, stag
gered the fiend for a second or two, dur
ing which the deacon effected his escape.
Popular Science Monthly.