Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-08
VENEZUELA sUPERsTITyONs.

women IL Is Believed. Bring Death 10 a
Snake Bitten Person.
Caracas Letter in the New York sun.
While the English railroad from Tuacas TO
Barquisimeto was under construction an En-
glishman holding an important position in the
work was bitten BY rattlesnake (here known
as the culebra). The man was forthwith taken
to the English quarters and put to bed. While
the English doctor was being summoned tho
wives OF the Englishmen at work on the road
hustled about and tried TO do what they could
70 help the sufferer. In the midst of the con-
fusion native came running in with the kind
hearted intention Of curing the man.
Turn all the women out" said he
What the devil?' said the Enghshman's
friends. what for?"
Their eyes are death. explained the native
The man will not live il they look upon
him."
With that the Englishmen turned the native
out Of the house and the bitten man himself lie.
olared that If the English doctor could not cure
MIN no superstitious native could. The
physician came in hot haste and worked until
the Precipitation run down his face In little
streams. The women lowered around and did
what they could. In exactly two hours and
half the man dead. The kind-hearted
native heard OF it, shrugged his shoulders and
went his way
On the following day q native !aborer was
very badly bitten by a rattlesnake near the
same place. He was not of sufficient account
Tor the well-paid English doctor TO bother with.
SO the native laborers carried him off to q house
ana turned all the women out and sent for
herbs and leaves and such things They worked
at him for an hour or in the way that the
natives and Indians know. and the next day he
was back at work as though nothing had hap
pened. The thick-headed Englishrlen could
yanSa vyNlu Al.
this day
Here is another story on the same subject: A
native womans ten-year-old son was bitten
most frightfully by some sort of q venomous
serpent. Did she rush up 70 him. clasp him in
her arms and try TO cure him? Not she, The
only thing that she did was to send for her hus-
band and to hide herself and her female ser
wants far away from the suffering lads pres
ence. Her husband and a neighbor or two
hustled about and looked after the boy, and it
was only on the third day that she looked upon
her son. II she had looked upon him while the
snakes poison was in his blood the natives had
no doubt her eyes would have caused him to
vomit blood and die Yet this woman loved
her boy with all a mothers devotion.
When the exposition was held at Caracas in
1888. the year OF tho Bolivar centennial, two
men from some remote inland place had on ex-
hibition box full of exceedingly venomous
reptiles. Merely to look at these poisonous
when the place was crowded the box was over
turned, and five of the ugly things got out and
began to run about In remarkably lively sort
OF way. A tiger let loose would not have created
half the excitement and confusion. People went
ravinS mad in their desire 10 get away Tables,
chairs and showcases were overturned by the
frantic mob, and for q time it looked as though
half the crowd would be bitten 70 death or
trampled under foot before they could GET
away.
The man who told this story pulled off his
coat and threw it over one of the snakes and
the two snake exhibitors caught the others in
their naked hands. One of the men was bitten
several times-so badly bitten, in fact that il
seemed to be impossible that he could live
twenty minutes
His companion knew just exactly what to do
ana did IT In the first place he called for
blankets or pieces Of cloth or anything that he
co get. and with feverish haste he wrapped
up his bitten companion completely out of
sight. This was done with haste that we'll nigh
amounted to madness. Then the HELPLESS man
was carried across the street to his hotel and
put to bed. His companion worked over him
for two hours, and at the end of that time
rested, with q sigh of relief.
why did you wrap him up in such haste2n
asked the man who told this story.
10 Keep him away from the eyes of the
women" replied the snake exhibitor
What was the danger?"
III women had looked upon him he would
have vomited blood and died before we could
have got him half way across the street"
This strange superstition is not confined to
Venezuela by any means. The same thing is
found in the Dutch Island of Curacao, in the
further West Indies. and also in the republic
OF Colombia. A senator of the United States
OF Colombia said to an American visitor that
although the fact was as familiar to him as the
commonest detail of everyday life yet he could
not say why il was SO.