The National tribune., 1888-08-02
FER-DE-LANCE.
A Terrible Serpcntine Pest Of the Tropics.
JTur-s,ryfp FFy,~yr,-s,,s1

There are eight varieties of him the fer-de
Iance), 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 con-
cealiag his triangular head. Sometimes he is
a beautiful flower yellow; then he may never
be distinguished from the bunch of bright
bananas among which he hangs coiled or he
may be dark yellow, or yellowish- brown, or
the color of wine lees speckled with pink and
black, or perfect ash tint or black with yel-
low belly, or black with a rose belly-all hues of
tropical mould, of old bark, of putrefying trees,
of forest detritus. The iris of the eye orange,
with red flashes; at night it glows like incan-
descent 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 pleas
ure resorts. People must remain at home after
dark unless they dwell in the city itself; if
you happen to be out visiting after sunset, only
a mile from town, your friends will caution
you anxiously not to follow 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; at any moment seeming
branch, knot of liauas pink or gray root,
! =
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 tumefies softens
changes color, spots violaceously, and an icy
GOODNESS crawls through all the blood. If the
physician or the paHSeur 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. Necrosis of the
tissues begins; the flesh corrupts, tatters, tum-
bles from the bone and the colors of its putre
faction are frightful mockeries of the hues of
vegetable DEATH of forest decOm position, the
! CHASTITY pinks and grays and yellows of rotting
/ trunks and roots melting back into the thick
/ fetid clay that gave them birth. You moulder
as the trees moulder; you crumble and dis
/ solve as dissolves the substance Of the balatas
/ and the palms and the acomats the Death of
/ the-Hoods has seized upon you!
| And this pestilence that walketh in darkness,
! this destruction that wasteth at MONDAY, may
not be exercised. Each female produces yivip-
| arously from 30 to so young at a birth. The
haunts of the creature are in many cases in
accessible, inexplorable; its multiplication is
| predigous; it is only the surplus of its swarm
! ing that oveTpours into the canefelds, and
makes the high roads perilous after sunset, yet
to destroy three or four hundred thanatophidia
J on single small plantation during the lapse
/ OF II months has not been uncommon. The
! introduction Of the mangouste (the icbneumon)
may, it is hoped. do much toward protecting
/ the workers in the canefelds and on the cocoa
/ and coffee plantations but the mangouste's
powers are limited, and the ocean Of death is
/ illimit4hla