164 FLORIDA DAYS.

deceived; the predisposition'to be awed by ai
serpent was in the wise man, and in spite ofC
hiq antagonism to the prophet he could not
resist it. It would seem that intelligence, like
holiness, is not always a protection against the,
freaks of the imagination; and it is most in-
teresting to observe, in connection with thei
unreasonable fury which is felt by men for:
snakes, how greatly the serpent has affected:
the history of the race.
 A man's desire to kill a snake never leaves.
him. Here, paddling noiselessly up the creek,
so steeped in the wonder and beauty of the
woods and water that he cannot even remem-
ber the bitterness and passion of yesterday, a,
man will 'suddenly and violently fling himself!
out of Nirvana, because he has caught sight of a;
moccason. To kill the pretty creature, sunning
himself on a cypress knee, quite harmless, at
least for the moment, because entirely out of'
the track" of the traveller, he will leave Para-
dise. And he is aware, too, of a new, unwonted
cruelty in his soul. That the snake slips into
the water, his glossy back cut and broken, with;