“If to explain our dislike for bats we mention their strange and repulsive appearance, we have not the same excuse in regard to snakes. Their slender form is not lacking in grace, the suppleness they display in their undulating movements is pleasing to the eye, and their scaly skin is decorated with well-defined colors that are prettily arranged. Our aversion, then, must be otherwise explained. Some serpents are venomous; they are armed with a formidable and death-dealing weapon. Certainly [[261]]it is not for these that I ask your favor. Indeed, if it were in my power to exterminate them all I would gladly free the earth of their presence. But others—and these are far more numerous—are not venomous and consequently are perfectly harmless unless they are large enough to hurt us by muscular force, which is not rare in the hot countries of the equator, but never to be feared in our part of the world, where the largest snake is not so strong as a mere child. Thus it is that some are much to be feared on account of their venom, while others, at least those of this region, are not in the least dangerous. But we are all too prone to lose sight of this difference in serpents. The evil reputation of the one with venomous fangs is fastened on all the others, so that we abhor them all alike because we believe them all to be venomous. In France we have only one venomous serpent, the viper, and all the others, large as well as small, are perfectly harmless and we will refer to them simply as snakes.
“In one of our former talks[1] I told you about the viper, describing its form and coloring, the structure of its venomous apparatus, and the effects of its bite. I here repeat the principal facts then related, in order to give you now a connected account of our serpents as a class.
“All serpents dart back and forth between their lips, with extreme rapidity, something that looks like a black thread, of great flexibility and ending in a fork. Many persons believe this to be the reptile’s [[262]]weapon, the sting, as they call it, whereas in reality it is nothing but the tongue—a quite inoffensive tongue, which the creature uses for catching insects to feed upon, and also for expressing in its own peculiar fashion the passions that agitate it. This last it does by shooting the tongue swiftly in and out between the lips. All serpents without exception have a tongue, but in our country it is only the viper that possesses the terrible apparatus for injecting venom.
Head of Snake, showing Forked Tongue
“This apparatus is composed, first, of two fangs or long, sharp teeth, situated in the upper jaw. Unlike ordinary teeth, these fangs are not fixed firmly in their sockets, but can at the creature’s will stand up for attack or lie down in a groove of the gum and remain there as harmless as a stiletto in its sheath. In this way the viper runs no risk of wounding itself. The fangs are hollow and pierced near the point with a very small opening through which the venom is discharged into the wound they give. Finally, at the base of each fang is a small pocket or sac filled with a venomous liquid. It is to all appearance a perfectly harmless liquid, odorless and tasteless, so that you would take it for nothing but water. When the viper strikes with its fangs, the venom sac discharges a drop of its contents into the tiny channel perforating the fang, and the liquid is injected into the wound. It is by mixing with the blood that the venom produces its terrifying effects.” [[263]]
“I remember all that very well,” said Jules, “and also what you said must be done to prevent the mixing of the venom with the blood in general that circulates through the body.”
“And I also told you that the viper haunts by preference warm, rocky hills; it lurks under stones and in underbrush. In color it is brown or reddish, with a dark zigzag stripe along the back and a row of spots on each side, each spot fitting into one of the angles made by the zigzag stripe. Its stomach is slate-color and its head rather triangular in shape, being broader than the neck and running to a blunt point at the mouth. The viper is timid by nature and attacks man only in self-defense. Its movements are abrupt, irregular, and sluggish.”
“What does it live on?” Jules inquired. “Does it eat nothing but little insects that it can catch with its tongue?”
“Its chief food consists of larger prey, which calls for the use of its venomous weapon. Small field-rats, field-mice, meadow-mice, moles, sometimes frogs and even toads, are its usual victims. The animal attacked by the reptile is first stung with the venomous fangs, whereupon it is immediately overcome with agony. As soon as the prey is dead the viper twines its folds about the lifeless body, squeezes it tightly, and subjects it to a sort of kneading process in order to make it smaller; for the victim must be gulped down in one mouthful even if it exceeds the serpent itself in size. This preparation finished, the gullet opens to its utmost width and the two jaws, [[264]]seeming almost to fly apart, seize with their sharp teeth, which point backward toward the throat, the head of the mole or field-mouse or whatever the small game may be. A flow of saliva then streams over the body to make it slip down more readily, but it is so large a mouthful that the viper manages to swallow it only by a violent effort. The throat dilates and contracts, the jaws move alternately from right to left and from left to right, to coax the unwieldy mass downward, and so it is that this laborious swallowing is protracted sometimes for hours, sometimes for a whole day. Indeed, it not seldom occurs that the forward half of the prey is already undergoing digestion in the stomach while the hind quarters still stick in the throat or protrude from the mouth.