Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-09-14
THE FER-DE-LANCE.
THE TERRIBLE REPTILE WHICH
RElGNS IN MARTINIQUE.

RElGNS IN MARTINIQUE.
The Deadly Serpent Which Is Lord of the
Forests and Solitudes by Day, and the
Terror of Roads and Parks by Night
The Cat Its Most Formidable Enemy.
Nature Is dangerous here; the powers that
build here are also the powers that putrefy;
here life and death are perpetually inter-
changing office in the never ceasing transfer
nation of forces, melting down and reshap-
Ing living substance simultaneously within
the same awful crucible. There are trees dis
tilling venom; there are plants that have
fangs; there are perfumes that affect the
brain; there are cold green creepers whose
touch consumes flesh like fire; while in all
the recesses and the shadows is q swarming
of unfamiliar life, beautiful or hideous-in-
sect, reptile, bird-interwarring, devouring,
observing, preying. Strange spiders cf
burning colors, immense lizards, scaribs
cuirassed in all tints of metal humming-
birds plumaged in all splendor of jewel radi-
ance, flies that flash like fire, centipedes of
gigantic growth And the lord of all these,
the despot of these vast domains, is the ter
rible Fer-delance, the trigonocephalus, the
Bothrops lanceolatus, the craspodecephalus,
dsadliest of Occidental thanatophidia.
There are eight varieties Of him, the most
common being the gray speckled with black,
precisely the color that enables the monster
to hide himself among the roots of the trees
by simply coiling about them and concealing
his triangular head. Sometimes he is beau
tiful flower yellow; then he may never be
distinguished from the branch of bright ba-
nanas among which he hangs coiled; or he
may be dark yellow, or yellowish brown,
OF the color of wine lees speckled with pink
and black, or perfect ash tint, or black with
yellow belly, or black with rose belly
all hues of tropical mold, of old bark, of
putrefying trees, of forest detritus. The iris
of the eye is orange, with red flashes; at
night it glows like incandescent charcoal,
And the fer-de-lance reigns absolute king
over the mountains and the ravines; he is
lord of the forests and the solitudes by day,
and by night he extends his dominion over
the public roads, the familiar paths, the
parks, the pleasure resorts. People must re-
main at home after dark unless they dwell in
the city itself; if you happen to be out visit
ing after sunset, only mile from town, your
friends will caution you andously not to fol-
low the boulevard as you go back, and to
keep as closely as possible to the very center
of the path. Even in the brightest noon you
cannot venture to enter the woods unescorted;
you cannot trust your eyes to detect danger;
ct any moment seeming branch, knot of
ianas, pink or gray root, a clump of pen
dant yellow fruit, may suddenly take life,
writhe, swell, stretch, spring, strike. Then
you will need aid indeed, and most quickly;
for within the space of few heart beats
the stricken flesh chills, tumefes, softens,
changes color spots v1olaceously, and an icy
GOODNESS crawls through all the blood If
the physician or the pauseur arrives in time,
and no artery or vein has been directly
pierced, there is hope; but the danger is not
passed when the life has been saved. Ne
crosis of the tissues begins; the flesh corrupts,
tatters, tumbles from the bone; and the
colors of its putrefaction are frightful mock
cries of the hues of vegetable death, of forest
decomposition, the CHASTITY pinks and grays
and yellows Of rotting trunks and roots melt
ing back into the thick fetid clay that gave
them birth. You molder as the trees
molder; you crumble and dissolve as dis
solves the substance of the balatas and the
palms and the acomats: the Death-of-the-
Woods has seized upon you'll
And this pestilence that walketh in dark
ness, this destruction that wasteth at noon
day, may not be exercised Each female
produces viviparously from forty to sixty
young at a birth. The haunts of the crea-
ture are IN many cases inaccessible, inexplor-
able; Its multiplication IS prodlg1ous; it is
only the surplus OF It's sWarmlng that over
pours into the cane fields, and makes the
high roads per1lous after sunset, yet to des-
troy three or four hundred thanatophldla on
single small plantatlon during the lapse OF
twelve months has not been uncommon. The
| introduction OF the mangouste 1.-THE lchneu-
MON may, 1t Is hoped, do much toward pro-
tectlng the workers IN the cane fields and on
the cocoa and coffee plantations; but the
mangouste's powers are limited, and the
ocean OF death IS llllmltable
The experience OF fear has enabled domes-
tic animals to discern the presence of the
enemy while invisible to man. Your horse
rears and plunges in the darkness, trembles
| and sweats; do not try to ride on until you
are assured the way is clear-your animal
has perceived far ahead two scintillating
| points. two moving sparks of fire. Or your
| dog may come running back, whining, shiv-
| ering; accept his warning. The animals
| kept about country residences have learned
| to fight for their lives; the hen battles hope
| lessly for her chickens, the bull tries to gore
his supple enemy, the pig gives more sue
cessful combat; but the creature who fears
I the monster least is the brave cat. Seeing a
snake, she at once carries her kittens to
place Of safety, then boldly advances to the
encounter. She will walk to the very limit
| feint. teasing him. startling him. irving to
draw his blow. How the emerald and
the topazine eyes glow then-they are
] flames A moment more and the tri-
angular head, Kissing from the coil,
flashes swift as il moved by wings. But
swifter still the strong stroke of the armed
| IT,