was not at all angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had
hers. I had got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that
it was of no use for a human being, who requires food three times a
day, to domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without
food: for, as the saying is, 'Hunger will tame any thing;' and without
hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent,
instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been an emblem of
stupidity."

"The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is
superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and copiously,
that it infects the air around to a diameter of several yards. This I
witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather large snake; in which
act two points beside the odour effused were notable. The coils of the
snake formed, as it were, a circular wall; and in the circular space
between it, the snake sunk its head, as if for protection. The dog's
efforts were to catch and crush the head; and, shrivelling up her
fleshy lips, 'which all the while ran froth,' she kept thrusting the
points of her jaws into the circular pit aforesaid, and catching at
and fracturing the head. During the progress of these acts, she, every
few seconds, snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed
sedulously careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake.
The dog was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite
an accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her way."--J.D.

* * * * *

CURIOUS FACTS IN VEGETATION

(From Part xiv. of _Knowledge for the People, or the Plain Why and