Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/112

 River Hopkins. The aborigines believe that thunder causes them to come out of the water and lay their eggs. These they deposit in the sand, and cover with a layer of soft mud, about the size of the mouth of a tea cup. This indicates their position to the fisher, who digs them up with a stick. They are roasted in hot ashes, and are considered very good eating. Snakes are very much dreaded by the aborigines, who, from their primitive habits, are peculiarly exposed to danger from these reptiles. Only two instances, however, of death from snake-bite are known to the present generation of the tribes mentioned in this book; and there is no recollection of any death of a child from this cause. There are eight kinds of snake, including boas, most of which are venomous; and their poison is considered to be just as virulent when they are in a semi-torpid state as when they are in full activity. There is only one variety — the carpet or tiger snake — which will attack a man without provocation, and this is the most deadly of all the Victorian snakes. The death-adder of the interior of Australia, whose bite is said to kill a large dog in fifteen minutes, is unknown in the Western District of Victoria. On the Mount Elephant Plains there is a small kind of snake, called 'gnullin gnullin,' which is about eighteen inches long, and one-third of an inch in diameter, of uniform thickness, and terminating abruptly at the tail. It resembles the English blind-worm, and, like it, is harmless. With the exception of this and the boas, bite of any of the snakes will produce temporary indisposition. When, therefore, a person is bitten by a snake, and has not been able to discern the species to which it belongs, he is made to look at the sun, and, if he see an emu in it, the case is considered hopeless: he has seen his spectre, and must shortly die. If nothing be seen in the sun, there is hope of recovery. The only remedy used is rubbing the wound with fat. They have no idea of sucking the wound, or scarifying it. They have a very correct idea of the nature of snake-bite, for they believe that the poison is contained in a bag behind the eye, and is projected into the wound through a hollow in the fang. They say that one poisonous snake can kill another. Boa snakes are not so plentiful as the others. There are two kinds, a larger and a smaller. Of the larger kind, individuals have been killed ten feet long. They are of a dark mottled leaden colour, and have small heads, with large teeth. The smaller kind is the more dangerous of the two. It will attack a human being readily and unprovoked. When it has laid hold of its victim, it cannot easily be removed. It winds itself tightly round the body until it reaches the {{nop}