Boy With Snake Charm Killed By a Snake!

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 22

Boy With Snake Charm Killed By a Snake!

ORX eight years ago with the imprint of a death adder on his foot, l TTr!i|Cff the son of Mrs. Charles CeSfipM I Vickers, of Cessnock, died—bitten by a death adder. Strangely enough the reptile bit the unfortunate boy oil the head of its own image. Mr. D. Suiker, of the Sydney Hospital, tells the strange story of the fatal bite. When young Vickers was born he bore on his right foot a remarkably clear imprint of a snake, and there was no mistaking the form of the deadly reptile. The mother had a curious and perhaps natural presentiment that her infant son was to die.

Strange Australian Tragecty

It amounted to a fear, and often she would send for him simply to reassure herself that he was safe and sound. As the years passed without incident, she became more settled in mind, however. Sprang At Him One morning, shortly before his eighth birthday, the boy was sent to take his father’s tea to a field adjoining the homestead. It was necessary to pass through a gate. As he did so, he stumbled, and fell. Evidently his fall disturbed a death-adder, for the snake sprang at him, and buried its fangs in the head of the birthmark. Efforts on the part of his father to save him were unsuccessful, and the boy died about au hour later.