After these mad gambols, she always returned to her calf, first saluting us with a long, plaintive kind of bellow, by way of farewell.
Violin Charms a Snake.
At this period it was that, rescuing a fine snake from some ignorant boys who were about to kill it, under the notion that it was venomous, but who were glad to sell it for twopence, we carried the slippery creature home, and assigned him a lodging in a small wicker basket, filled with moss and suspended by a single string from a hook in the ceiling of our bachelor’s snuggery.
The reptile grew to know us, and to welcome us in his way, by gliding his cold coil across our face and temples when we brought him fresh moss, or tempted him with food, which, by the way, he would never take. It was by accident only that we discovered his musical predilections.
One evening, while marching the room to the sound of our old violin, with which it was our custom to beguile an occasional hour, we caught sight of what seemed a monstrous python threatening us from aloft. It was the shadow of our pet snake, projected by the single candle on the table to the arched ceiling above, and magnified to formidable looking dimensions.
The fellow was hanging out of the basket almost by the tip of his tall, and, with his head stretched toward us, was following our motions as we walked up and down the room.
We remembered the snake-charmers, and conceived at once that it was the music which had brought him out; and so it proved, as we had opportunity of certifying by repeated experiments. Whenever he heard the violin he came out, and always with his head in the direction of the sound, as if anxious to reach it. When taken from the basket and hung around the neck, he lay limp and as if lifeless while the music lasted, and did not immediately recover when it had ceased.
One day, on finding that he made no appearance at the call of the violin, we reached down the basket and found him gone. Whether he had fallen out by accident while hanging by his tall, or taken the leap on purpose, there was no knowing; but he had disappeared, and we saw him no more, though a few weeks after his departure we found his skin, turned inside out, behind a box placed against the wall.
Dogs Are Discriminating.
Dogs, judging from the conduct of the generality of them, may be regarded as indifferent to music, as they are noticed neither to seek nor shun it, as a general rule. Being remarkably docile, however, they may be, and are, taught to discriminate tunes, and to dance to violin, pipe, and drum in a manner that indicates plainly enough their appreciation of musical time at least.