as they could:  they soon found that the more they drank the lower the wine became.  Perseverance is the motto of the rat; so they set to work and ate away the wood to the level of the wine again.  This they continued till they had emptied the cask; they must then have got into it and licked up the last drains, for another and less agreeable smell was substituted for that of wine.  I may add that this cask, with the side gone, and the marks of the rats’ teeth, is still in my possession.

SNAKES AND THEIR POISON

From ‘Curiosities of Natural History’

Be it known to any person to whose lot it should fall to rescue a person from the crushing folds of a boa-constrictor, that it is no use pulling and hauling at the centre of the brute’s body; catch hold of the tip of his tail,—­he can then be easily unwound,—­he cannot help himself;—­he “must” come off.  Again, if you wish to kill a snake, it is no use hitting and trying to crush his head.  The bones of the head are composed of the densest material, affording effectual protection to the brain underneath:  a wise provision for the animal’s preservation; for were his skull brittle, his habit of crawling on the ground would render it very liable to be fractured.  The spinal cord runs down the entire length of the body; this being wounded, the animal is disabled or killed instanter.  Strike therefore his tail, and not his head; for at his tail the spinal cord is but thinly covered with bone, and suffers readily from injury.  This practice is applicable to eels.  If you want to kill an eel, it is not much use belaboring his head:  strike, however, his tail two or three times against any hard substance, and he is quickly dead.

About four years ago I myself, in person, had painful experience of the awful effects of snake’s poison.  I have received a dose of the cobra’s poison into my system; luckily a minute dose, or I should not have survived it.  The accident happened in a very curious way.  I was poisoned by the snake but not bitten by him.  I got the poison second-hand.  Anxious to witness the effects of the poison of the cobra upon a rat, I took up a couple in a bag alive to a certain cobra.  I took one rat out of the bag and put him into the cage with the snake.  The cobra was coiled up among the stones in the centre of the cage, apparently asleep.  When he heard the noise of the rat falling into the cage, he just looked up and put out his tongue, hissing at the same time.  The rat got in a corner and began washing himself, keeping one eye on the snake, whose appearance he evidently did not half like.  Presently the rat ran across the snake’s body, and in an instant the latter assumed his fighting attitude.  As the rat passed the snake, he made a dart, but missing his aim, hit his nose a pretty hard blow against the side of the cage.  This accident seemed to anger him, for he spread out his crest and waved it to and