Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1902-07-05

| hessed. 4 craspedocephalus, coiled on
stone IN the ford, lei IA men walk
over him, without stirring or letting
| himself be seen, and then struck Tue
beautiful Indian bride, "Lelbllng der
Ganzen uesellschaft." She died IN her
brIdegr0otns arms with horrors un-
writcablc, and within the half hour the
blackened flesh had dropped In chunks
from her bones They viii tell you TO.
day In Santa Lucia that 40 grains or
qulnlne, mixed with the Juice Of two
lemons, II administered at once VIII
sometimes save life, but 81 likely 80
leave the victim paralyzed. Another
remedy Is pint Of olive oil, followed
by a pint OF bay rum; and after the he
rolc dose a yapor bath, But the grim
fact remains that nobody living can
vouch for cure, and 80 universal Ia
the fear OF the iron -lance-whlch lies
along the branches OF trees, ready TO
spring upon passers-by. invades the
cane fields ana orchards, and even
turks IN garden walks, that people Nv"
ing In the suburbs of the city seldom
venture from their houses after night
fall. II is not so singular then, as at
first appears 20 you, that the natives
make household pets OF the cfibo-a
great, ugly-lookIng snake, about eight
feet long. but perfectly harmless, which
IL the only living thing against which
the fur-de-lnnce has no power, The
cribo-a relative OF our common water
snake--s Jet black. with more or less
bright yellow along the belly and tail.
In every house Of Santa Lucia one 10
sure 70 be found asleep In the thatch,
coiled up In q corner, or perhaps sun
ming himself IN the doorway, as much
ut home and as cherished as the pet
cat IN the north. Should an iron
lance dare TO show his ilcndlsh, trl-
angular shaped head near the territory
OF Mr.. Cribo, the latter instantly ohal-
lenges his arch enemy to mortal COM
bat, and invariably comes off yictori-
Gus.
Strange to say, the fur-de-lance Is
found In none Of the West India islands
except Santa Lucia, Martinique and
Guadaloupe and the mystery Ia how
he ever came there, his nearest home
being In Guiana on the coast Of South
America. If IL Is true, as some scient-
lists insist, that these islands were
once Joined to the main continent, and
that he Travelled by land to the places
he now infests In such numbers why
did he skip all the islands between
Guiana and Santa LuciaY Even Trlni-
dad, only a few miles from the South
American coast. IA as Innocent OF them
as Ireland was Of snakes OF any sort
after ~, ratrichs Visit. For some UNI
known reason the ffehky iron.lanoe re.
fuses to live In nearby 81 Vincent.
The story goes that during the Carlb
war Of i79b, the hard-pressed savages
imported a lot Of young fer.de-lances,
from santa Lucia into ". Vincent, and
turned them loose, hoping that they
would destroy the white men; but In a
few weeks every snake died. The ex.
pertinent was several times repeated
and the result was always the same
Yet In Santa Lucia they thrive so we'll
and are 70 actively hostile 10 man that
hundreds OF people are killed by them
every year and the phrase, "he died
OF the serpent" Is as commonly heard
as The died Of fever" An Englishman
who recently cleared a piece Of land
near Castries says that his workmen
killed upwards OF 40 "rat.talls' during
the first week.
Santa Lucia is evidently Of volcanic