The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 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, a 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.
BlackSnal1eS Overtake their prev by Su-
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 bv
the supply. Truth-loving and otherwise
intelligent persons listened gravely to
stories about linnets who hopped 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 a reluctant fiut-
ter toward a ditch or hedge where the
enemy lay concealed, a cOiled snake
with 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 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; col
ord deacon of NavasOta, Texas, affirms
that he himself was once charmed by Il
flat-bellied rattle-snake, and favored the
! local weekly with a circumstantial ac-
count of his adventure. On his way
| from meeting he took a short cut across a
field Ga sweet-potato field his neighbors
suspect), and was just in the act OF
climbing a fence when his eve was
caught by a piercing glitter in the weeds,
sudden fiash-like CLEAN that went
through him like an electric shock, and
made him grab the top rail with a con
vulsive grip. He tried to jump down
but could not; his legs were paralyzed
and a feeling of numbness began tc
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 tho
reptile wagged his tail and came little
nearer. He gave himself up for lost
when he suddenly thought of big
| prayer-book in his pocket, and in tho
moment when the serpent braced itsel
for a spring, he hurled at its head copy
! of BaXter's - Saints Rest - CTract So
ciety edition, 8vo), which, either by it.
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.