The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-01-04
AN EIeHrsEN-INcH DEATH.
Tbe Most Malignant and Dendly Creafur.
In fEe World.


tI.ardon Telegraph
A recent arrival at the Geological So
ciety's Garden az Regents Park deserves
special notice, apart from the fact that
it is the first of its species known to have
been brought to England. It is snake,
called the ecltis ifnrfncta, about foot
and half long, and Of dingy gray.
Yet, although ia appearance neither
interesting nor formidable, it is the
deadliest of created things. This de-
tsstable little worm, which, locking at it,
the spectator might make bold to say he
could initiate very passably in cork and
putty, is, nevertheless, one of the mira
cles and masterpieces of nature, for it is
death itself, aid carries in its tiny head
the secret of destroying life with the
sudden rapidly os LIGHTNING and the
concentrated agony sf all poisons. The
echis comes to us fs5.a India, where it is
tolerably common, being found in nearly
. vdsss YER f6unti he szcarnation Of
instant and teSrible Destruction I Or
,tunately, however, for han, it is not,
like the cobra arAd thes korait, a house
frequenting snake, for It's tiny size would
give it terrible advantage over human
beings who live crowded together, as the
natives of India do, in small darkened
rooms, while its aggressive habits would
make it infinitely more fatal to life than
its dreaded relatives. For this king of
the asps, this modern basilisk, is not
only venomous beyond conception, but
S actively offensive. 1t does not turn to
escape from man, as the cobra viii, or
flash into concealment, like the korait,
but conscious, perhaps, of its deadliness,
deliberately keeps the path against its
human assailant, and, putting its own
eighteen inches of length against his
bulk, challenges and provokes the con-
fict A stroke with whip will cut it in
two, or clod of earth disable it,; but
such is its malignity that it will invite
attack by every device at its command,
stalking his own life ON the mere chance
of his adversary coming within the little
circle of his power. At most, the radius
of this circle is twelve inches, but within
it, at any point, lies certain death, and
on the bare hope of hand or foot trespass-
ing within its reach, the echis throws its |
body into a fgnre-of-eight coil, and at
tracing attention by rubbing its loops |
together, which, from the roughness of |
the scales (hence the epithet car5,aata), |
makes rustling, Missing sound, erects
its head and awaits attack. No one hav-
ing ever encountered. this terrible worm
can ever forget its trIlculent aspect when
thus aroused, its eagerly aggressive air,
its restless coils, which in constant mo-
ton one over the other, and rustling
all the while, stealthily but
surely bringing it nearer and nearer to
the object Of its fury; the eye malignant
even beyond those of other vipers, and
then the inconceivable rapidity of its
stroke For the echis does not want to
strike until it is within striking distance,
but vents its malice in repeatedly darling
1T nothing, hoping, perhaps, to aggra-
yate its antagonist into coming to closer
quarters, or, more probably, as a mere
expression. of its own uncomfortable