a farmer who has lived many years in the country, and
seemed to have paid rather more than usual attention to this species of
reptile, he said he once saw a mouse running in a field, and that,
coming in sight of a snake, though at a considerable distance, it
instantly stopped. The snake fixed its eye on the mouse, which then
crept slowly towards the snake, and, as it approached nearer, trembled
and shrieked most piteously, but still kept approaching until quite
close, when it seemed to become prostrate, and the snake then devoured
it. On another occasion he had watched a snake capture a mouse in the
same manner; but, as it was retreating, he followed, and struck it on
the back with a stick, when it opened its mouth, and the mouse escaping,
ran for some distance, then fell down; but after a minute recovered and
ran away. Another time he said he watched a snake in the water, which
had fixed its eye on a frog sitting amongst the grass on the bank. The
frog, though greatly alarmed, seemed unable to stir, until Mr Pullen
gradually pushed a rush growing near so that it intervened between the
eye of the snake and its intended victim, when the frog, as if suddenly
liberated, darted away. Mr Pullen's ideas were in accordance with the
popular notion, that the snake has the power of exercising some mesmeric
or other influence through the steady fixing of its eye, and that
whatever intercepts this gaze breaks, as it were, the charm, and sets
the prisoner free."

A most important witness on this matter is Dr Andrew Smith, the learned
zoologist of South Africa, who thus soberly throws the weight of his own
thoroughly competent and most conclusive personal observations into the
affirmative scale. In his interesting account of the Boomslange, a
serpent of considerable size found in that region, he says:--

"As this snake, _Bucephalus capensis_, in our opinion, is not provided
with a poisonous fluid to instil into wounds which these fangs may
inflict, they must consequently be intended for a purpose different to
those which exist in poisonous reptiles. Their use seems to be to offer
obstacles to the retrogression of animals, such as birds, &c., while
they are only partially within the mouth; and, from the circumstance of
these fangs being directed backwards, and not admitting of being raised
so as to form an angle with the edge of the jaw, they are well fitted to
act as powerful holders when once they penetrate the skin and soft parts