Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1892-02-03

In South America wc hear the story OF
the snake with the sting In his tail. He is
said 10 be more deadly than any other on
account Of this double armament. or
course this is not true, but still there is In
It n little truth-iust enough 10 flavor the
falsehoOd. Over all the hilly and rolling
forest lands Of South America from Pan.
anna 10 Brazil there is found that largest
Of all deadly snakes, the bushmaster He
Is unique in the serpent world on account
OF the popularity Of his scales. Every
scale Is raised into a little knob exactly
like the protuberances on the rough sur
face of pineapple. Hence he is called In
Venezuela "Coaima de pima or pineapple
viper.
Among the Creolcs OF Trinidad, the only
West Indian island where hc CXist-, hg has
the title Of "Mapcpi Xanaua,' which has
the same meaning Toward the end of his
tail each scale is prolonged into II little
spine, increasing in length 10 the last or
terminal one, which is many times longer
than the others, aud In full grown spcci-
mems varies from half To thrcc-quartcrs
OF an inch In length. This spine /, entirely
innocent OF poison aud never brought into
use either for offensive or defensive pur
poses. The propensity OF the ignorant TO
confusedly with everything belonging To
snakes has transformed this harmless
caudal ornament into an instrument OF
vengeance and death. This, without doubt,
gives rise TO the story Of the snake with the
sting In his tail, "A needless exaggcration of
the powers Of this largest OF all deadly
sndkea a few years ago one was killed at
TOGO. in Trinidad, which measured l3I
feet.
That u snake can spit in the human sense
Of the word is utterly impossible ~ any one
may see who will examine the mechanism
of the mouth. There is II muscular action
implied in the word spit which fOrbids our
using IL when speaking of any effort that
snake can make; for in reptiles the liDs
have no muscular power Independent Of
the bony framework to which they are at
tached. Nevertheless, it is true that there
are snakes which can eject venom into tho
eyes of an assailant. There is force by
which the poison ordinarily injected into
the wounds made 10y the fangS may be
instead squiTtcd into the eyes Of human
being or animal approaching too closely or
prying too curiOusiy into the face OF an
alarmed serpent, and that force is the
pressure cXerted on the poison glands in
the act of striking. But this must have
rarely If ever happened in America, as the
curvature of the fangs in American deadly
snakes almost precludes such possibility.
But with the Indian and African cobra
and their relatives such a thing is not only
possible but easy.
In the rattlesnakc, the copporhcad, the
moccasin and in fact in all vipers both of
the Old and New World, the fangs are only
erect when the mouth is open, and even
then they are so curved downward and
the aperture by which the venom makes
its exit comes out ut such an acute angle
with the point of the fang that even il the
deadly fluid were elected through IL its
course would be rather horizontal, or even
downward, 50 that it would not reach the
eyes Of n man standing upright. With the
genus Naje, however it is tar otherwise
1t must be understood that to this and
some allied genera belong all the famous
and terrible snakes of Africa and India,
known generally under the name Of cobra
In these the secretion Of venom Is perhaps
more abundant, but there are pccularities
connected with their fang arrangement and
method OF striking.
As m example of American poison
snakes take the rattlesnake and of the