HAVE SNAKES THE POWER OF SCENT?
[To THE EDITOR OF TILE " SPECTAT0101
Sin,—In a sensational story in a recent issue of the Idler, a man, to cure his wife of her fear of snakes, places a dead python in his study. On entering the room, the wife is attacked by a living python, which unobserved, had entered therein. In view of a discussion that has arisen as to whether the appearance of the second snake was a mere coincidence invented by the author, or whether it was in keeping with reptilian habits, the following incident may be of interest to your readers.
I had brought home one evening a large but harmless snake which I had killed while crossing the road, about half-a- mile from my huts. On my arrival, the coolie cook at once said, "Him she-snake, Sar ! No good you bring him here— by-and-by, to-morrow, next day, father-snake ; he come here and stay." On the following afternoon a monkey, chained up outside the hut into which I had taken the dead reptile, ap- peared very excited. I entered and found a somewhat similarly marked snake lying almost on the very spot whereon I had placed the slain one the evening before. After a fight and struggle, I killed the second reptile, which proved to be a male of the same species. Under ordinary circumstances, I should have regarded the appearance of the male as a curious coincidence ; but the prophecy of the cook, based upon his traditional and practical knowledge, testified to the recognised habit of snakes in thus following up their mates. As I carried the slain female on a stick the whole way from where I had killed her to my home, I was anxious to find out by what faculty, whether by scent or otherwise, the male had tracked her to my hut. The coolie, however, was unable to give any information on this point, nor could he explain why the male had come to the but where the female had only been momentarily placed, instead of going to the rubbish-heap a few yards off where she was.
buried.—I am, Sir, &c., G. SEYMOull FORT. Old Usuleti, Manica, January 18th.
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