The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-02
Some Peculiar Traditions Are Told About the Rep
 tiles.
THE POOR GREEK YOUTH
Nobles Believed to Turn into snakes at Death by Certain
 Tribes.

 has ever played a supectacular role in that curious vaudeville of the inn aginaton that we call popular super stition
 By no means, however, has he al- ways taken the wicked fairy parton occasion even the devil a saint may be and some of the most interesting folklore presents him as a bonevo- lent being.
 Particularly true Is this of the | house snakes" guardians Of home [ and fireside. These the old Tcutons ! believed had special affection for | lonely little children were quite | chummy with the youngsters, In fact, going so far as to drink milk with them, while in some mysterious way the lives of child and reptile were SO bound up together that If the snake were Killed the little one would pine away House snakes in ancient Prussia were even more rcvcrcd, For the most part they were coddlcd m cosy comfort under the stoves, but at sacrficial seasons were coaXcd to NIdN | u1 ull ~ dl l'iIN '''''' ''''f'N covered with a spandy Sunday-So-to- meeting cloth and hcgulod into tast- ing certain dishes prepared for them, such condesccnsou beng looked upon as a good omen for the future, which would be black indeed if the snakes turned poutng away, says the Los 1 Angeles Times,
 .titI ] enco for the snakes comes the magic working snake stones, Very ancient arc some of these found in India and ! to this day the inhabitants of a vil- ] laEe would not dare to point to one | of the snakes carved upon tho stones, | knowing that such profanity would he l instantly punished by hls finger rot ! ting and falling off Yot lonely | hearted woman, hold in her excess of | longing, will draw near and lay an | offering of flowers before a stone. or | even touch the head of carved ! snake with red paint, with tho trembi- ing hope that shc may he blessed with children
 Ear anold from India but akin to l 'IlhEH NllHki Tllll'Ts ~ i.'l ldlI 'llbi III stones of Scotland, with rude patterns scratched on their surface and each stone pierced with two holes Accord 1 ing to tradition, these stones were made hy seven vpers, who shaped i them with their teeth while the king 1 of tho virers carried them to their l destination on his tall
 ! tSI with folklore of sorpcnts Is 2 hoau ] timl and very brilliant ore that tho 1 Cherokee Indians coniurod with This l they will toll you once adorned the head of a monstrous snake, lts glitter attracting tho rcd mans attention to | the reptile Rut so well protected by 2 guard nf other snakes was this re- | markahlo creature that for 2 long ! time lt vas impossible to attack it | Finally a bold coniurcr, lncasins him ! eolf in leather "imponetra to a serponts bite" succeeded in sur prsing and killing it The gllttering stone torn from its head he hid for many years in a place unknown save to two womon-a and the modern skep- | fife claims hat even one may not he trueted to keep q secret but later lt came into the possession of tho tribe,
 Rut head and shoulders above the l common herd of serpents is the snake of the following legend:
 A poor Greek youth his rags re- deemed by the tender heart that heat | beneath, put stop to the killing of a snake hy some cruel gamln of the street In gratitude tho snake coaXed his father to bcstow upon his rescuor a certain magic ring, evidently kind of family heirloom, and upon its pre- sontation tho old snake thus addressed the lad; "1f thou arc ever in need of anything lick the seal and black man will appear Command him to do whatever thou will and he will perform it.
 As soon as the lad reached homo with tho ring he began at the lowest rung of the ladder of desire by filling 1 the empty shelves of the cupboard. gradually working mp to the topmost ambition of his heart, the hand of l fair princess, her stern papa's consent
 won by the instantaneous appear ance of castle followed by paving n path with gold from the castle to the kings palace.
 The Xnus and other primitive peo- pies regard snakes as ancestral ghosts, the notion arising partly from the un- Cannv nature Of the serpent. partly from it's fondncss of livng near graves and then crawling Into houses, as though it might be revlsiting an old home,
 | According to certain tribes in Mad agascar, at death nohles pass into snakes. middle classes into crocodiles and the lower classes Into ecls It
 must not be supposed, however, that
 each noble had a snake to himself
 one reptile was considered quite
 roomy enough to hold a number ef
 men. women and children.
 As for the snake itself, various are
 the beliefs concerning its immortality. There Is an old Spanish superstition
 that the snake, feeling deaths ap-
 proach quietly draws himself out of
 the skin grows, develops, takes on
 scales, sprouts wings, until at the
 final word he has become full-
 hedged dragon, when by good fortune
 he dIscreetly withdraws Into the wild erness, In Japan snake spends a
 thousand years in the mountains, an
 other thousand in the water, and then evolves into a dragon. Even more
 remarkable Is the following old cobra
 trdion. A thousand years being this
 creatures allotted time, in middle life : it's body begins to shrink until 1t is only three feet long ono foot, a
 fingers length, when-skidoo twenty
 threc!--up it pips into the air, dies, , tumbes down, evaporates, disappears,