The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-23

there that at first glance looks like mon
ster slug, but presently make out a small
pointed head with glistening bead-like eyes
that regard me intently. Next my glance
follows the outline OF a slender gray and
white body pressed closely against the
branch to which it clings, and | make out
g snake lying along the branch studying
every move of mine. By some subtle pro-
cess of his own he recognizes the instant
that he is discovered, and with a noiseless,
gliding, graceful motion he slips slowly
| into the underbrush to the great relief of
the goldfinches.
DO not like snakes, and while l at once
identity this creature as a perfectly harm
less and very useful variety of his kind, |
have strong impulse to follow and STAY
him.
There is no reason in the world why 1
should do this, and vet, | presume, ninety
nine out of hundred men and women
would share my impulse. There IS some
thing about the sight of a snake that
arouses human rage and fear. We shudder
at them in horror as they cross our path
and we even speak with pride OF our hatred
of the crawling things-as though it were a
sort of virtue in uS-aS though we, our
selves, never crawl.
What is this strange, subtle enmity that
exists between mankind ana the serpent?
w nv 90 we ulWuSS COHSlUSr that we, nave
done something peculiarly commemorate
when we have killed a snake? l came
across an eminent scholar, genial, gentle
man, some time ago, belaboTing with
stones and sticks some object that | could
not clearly see. His face was flushed, his
hat lay on the ground and he was terribly
excited. What monstrous enemy of man
kind was he attacking with such valor?
looked and beheld the writhing remains
of a harmless little whipsnake. | remon-
strated with the slayer. THE creature
was perfectly harmless" said. ~ know
it." was his reply, "but have such a hor-
ror of snakes that | always feel impelled
to kill one when l see it,
And he really seemed not to realize how
entirely absurd was his position. Directed
toward any other creature he would have
felt such an impulse to be brutal and I'M
manly, but because the object of his hatred
was snake he even spoke of his feeling
with certain degree of pride. Theolo-
gians attribute the antipathy of man for
the snake to the creatures bad behavior
in the Garden of Eden, but evolutionsts
know there is more to it than that. Some
thing more than is related in the book of
Genesis has caused the feud of man against
the serpent. The human hatred is shared
by an order of beings to which scientists
tell us man is very closely allied. A
horse, COW, dog, will regard a nom
POISONOUS snake Will Iue greatest eQud-
nimity. 1t is not because the snake
crawls or is unlovely, nor because
some of them are poisonous, that
the birds fear the creature, but because it
has the habit of eating their nestlings.
But let q monkey see the smallest, most
innocent representative of the serpent
| order and he is thrown into the same
frenzy of fear and rage that characterizes
his human cousin-german at the same
sight. The Missing of snake will throw q
Gagged gorilla into panic of terror.
Why is it? Does some strange connect
ing link of memory carry him back to the
far-away past, when the first climbing an
thropoid in the primeyal forest lived in
constant terror of the terrible reptiles that
haunted those tropic glades?
If so, then mans hatred of the creature
is instructive. 1t certainly is not wholly
reasonable. The same inherited instinct
prompts his slaughter of the snake that
prompts the domestic cows attacks upon
| the canine descendant Of her ancient foe,
the woif that makes the dog. himself,
turn around three times before he lies
down to sleep because thus his prowling
prototype made his bed in ages long
gone by.
Such confirming evidence are these
trif1es, light as air, that science sees in
man fear and hatred of snakes not an in
dication that man is descended from the
monkey. We do not often nowadays hear
that proposition among intelligent people,
but that in the ages beyond our knowledge,
! even before the common ancestor of the