The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-01-19
DENYING SERPENTS.

Untut ored Natives Who Believe in the
Maxim. '.Similta SimIIibus Curantur.-
While in Europe the fatal bite of the
mad dog is dreaded, SD the deadly bite
OF the snake i the hydrophobia of the
East. During his recent exploration
of the KaIahari Desert Mr.. Farini found
that The natives with whom he was
thrown into contact invariably carried
a pouch of deadly dried snake poison
A. AN sntidote to the bite of the snake
The following account of converse
ton which one of our staff had with
Mr.. Fsrini may not be mai propOs:
while exploring the Kalahari." said
Mr.. Farini. where extremely poison
Gus snakes abound, several cases of the
nude natives being bitten by them
came under nv notice, and, strange 10
say, the untutOred savage, although
not knowing anything about Sinifd
stnilibus c,srant,sr. cure themselves by
inoculating with other virus. There il
not native or hunter that does not
carry either the dried body OF deadly
poisonous reptile called N'anboo. the
poison sacks of the puff adder. yellow
cobra or capella.
Their mOdus Opersndi il this: Az
soon IS possible after being bitten they
make slight incisions close TO where
the poison fangs entered. into which
they sprinkle some of the dried and
powdered virus. The first effect is to
induce sleepinesS. the swelling soon
goes down and i'm a day or two they are
rs we'll as ever. Three Of nv oxen
were bitten and cured by incubation.
One case of the bushman who had
cured the oxen / must specially men,
ton. He boosted of not being afraid
of being bitten. One day while walk
ing ahead of the wagons discovered a
full grown capella lying under
bush. I called the bushman and asked
him to catch it if he was not afraid of
being bitten. He replied he would if
would give him roll Of tobacco. |
refused, not wishing to he accessory To-
his death. While l was waiting for
the drivers whip TO dispatch the snake
the bushman gave the reptile Il kick
with his bare foot. aud the horrible
thing bit him. But the bush
man coolly took from a little skin
pouch some poison sacks. cul piece
off and reduced it 10 powder, pricked
his foot near the puncture. which had
commenced 10 swell, and rubbed the
virus powder in: one u the other
bushmen, who had killed the snake
aad extracted ths poison cysts. handed
one of them to him; he squeezed a
drop OF poison out of il into some
water and drank il: he seemed to fall
into u kind of stupor. in which he re-
manned some hours. AT first the swell
ing increased rapidly. but began to
subsids after some hours. Next morn
ing he inoculated himself again. That
night the swelling had completely dis
appeared, and the fourth day he seemed
as well as ever and claimed the roll OF
tobacco" Mr.. Farini took the pre-
caution to bring home she poison Of
several snakes and n portion of Nan
boo, which he is sending 10 nj. PastssI
10 experiment with.--E. Y. Herald.
Every few days the newspapers
contain reports of persons found
smothered in hotel bedrooms because
they "blew out the gas" If the
SuOInereu I1dn LOOKS Ike u drummer,
or other enlightened individual, the
Coroner's verdict is apt to hint darkly
at suicide. The municipal authorities
of Atlanta take another view of the
matter. They have been advised that
one-half the deaths from asphyxia are
caused by hotel proprietors, and have
made law that economical landlords
shall not turn of the gas from the
meter at night. A large number of
travellers leave the gas burning dimly
when they retire; then the hotel man
cuts off the gas. he turns it on again
for esrly-rising travellers, and the
others, if they sleep late, run q risk of
death from suffocation. Travellers
should turn the gas completely out be-
fore going to bed CsH0nssG& 7Gpss.