LURED TO DEATH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 53

LURED TO DEATH.

By a Banker.

Amono'st the most dangerous and hurtful to mankind of all the diverse varieties of the animal world the snake may well take the pre-eminence. Stealthy and noiseless in its movements, it glides softly along the ground its long sinuous folds hidden by the rank vegetation of the tropics, cunningly watching the unsuspecting wayfarer, who is proceeding homewards after his day's work, whom ot the favourable moment it strikes down with deadly onset. Seizing its wretched victim by one ot his limbs the powerful assailant immediately enfolds him in a lethal embrace, coiling itself round and round its quivering and .helpless prey, with ever tightening grip, his tutile struggles and cries for help disregarded by the venomous beast, until the terrible pressure slowly and surely crushes every bone in »ns body, the horrid agony intensified by the knowledge that he is now past human help, and that this sepulchre must be the maw ot the vile reptile. At length the miserable crea ture, his whole body compressed and bruised, and half suffocated by the putnd breath of the repulsive devourer, finds it impossible to breathe, and the deadly coil crushes the hie out of him. , After a time the sinuous monster, who is perhaps 30ft in length, unwinds itself from tno poor Indian, and after, it is said, sometimes playing with him as a cat does a mouse, proceeds to lubricate him with a quantity of horrid slime, then swallowing him whole, head first; the outline of the poor mortal plainly visiblo in tho serpent's distended body. _ Jt now makes off for its lair to indulge in a prolonged sleep, after which it is ready for another victim. „ The number of lives reported to the Indian authorities as lost by snakes amounts to many thousands per annum, besides doubtless vast numbers unreported, and a considerable sum is annually expended in the attempted extermination of snakes and other noxious animals. . , . The principal snake of the New World, the rattle snake, adopts a different mode of securing its prey. A much smaller reptile than the cobra, its food consists principally of rab bits, birds, etc., though it frequently attacks man and infhcUs a deadly wound with its poison fangs, which may prove fatal almost in a few minutes. Provided with an extraordinary horny appendage to its tail, which produces a distinct rattling sound, when on the lookout for prey it continuously shakes this strange apparatus, until a reckless bird or rabbit approaches it, attracted by the strange sound. The serpent, erect and motionless now fi^es its basilisk and glittering eyes upon the frightened bird or animal, apparently subjecting it to some sort of hypnotic influence, for although half paralysed with fear, the terror-struck victim makes not the slightest effort to escape, but hovers or plays about nparer and nearer to the beautiful destroyer, fascinated and bewitched by thobe gleaming and sparkling eyes, which appear altogether to enchant it and overcome it, until at length the trembling prey, helplessly unable to e^capo, approaches quite close to the fWod rigid form of the serpent. In the twinkling cf an eye the fascinating _ Basilisk now darts forward, fixes its fangs in its victim, and proceeds to devour it. And wo mortals are sometimes subjected to a similar onchantment. The deadly serpent of sin displays its attractions before us, varied to suit tho tastes and tendencies of the individual. Beautiful and alluring, it tempos us on and on, until at length, hopelessly captivated

f and enslaved, and fatuously disregarding thfc , great hereafter, wo rush headlong into a lurij j destruction. But happily there is Ono who,- ' if we will but ask Him, can bruise the ser- ! yent's head, and can deliver and rescue u» I from his deadly fangs.