r. John Baylor's house, where we lodged
that night, with a design to have sent him to Dr. Cock, at Williamsburg;
but Mr. Baylor was so careful of his slaves that he would not let him be
put into his boat, for fear he should get loose and mischief them;
therefore, the next morning we killed him, and took the hare out of his
belly. The head of the hare began to be digested and the hair falling
off, having lain about eighteen hours in the snake's belly.

I thought this account of such a curiosity would be acceptable, and the
rather because though I lived in a country where such things are said
frequently to happen, yet I never could have any satisfactory account of
a charm, though I have met with several persons who have pretended to
have seen them. Some also pretend that those sort of snakes influence
children, and even men and women, by their charms. But this that I have
related of my own view, I aver, (for the satisfaction of the learned,)
to be punctually true, without enlarging or wavering in any respect,
upon the faith of a Christian.

In my youth I was a bear hunting in the woods above the inhabitants, and
having straggled from my companions, I was entertained at my return,
with the relation of a pleasant rencounter, between a dog and a rattle
snake, about a squirrel. The snake had got the head and shoulders of the
squirrel into his mouth, which being something too large for his throat,
it took him up some time to moisten the fur of the squirrel with his
spawl, to make it slip down. The dog took this advantage, seized the
hinder parts of the squirrel, and tugged with all his might. The snake,
on the other side, would not let go his hold for a long time, till at
last, fearing he might be bruised by the dog's running away with him, he
gave up his prey to the dog. The dog ate the squirrel, and felt no harm.

Another curiosity concerning this viper, which I never met with in
print, I will also relate from my own observation:

Sometime after my observation of the charm, my waiting boy being sent
abroad on an errand, also took upon himself to bring home a rattle snake
in a noose. I cut off the head of this snake, leaving about an inch of
the neck with it. This I laid upon the head of a tobacco hogshead, one
Stephen Lankford, a carpenter, now alive, being with me. Now you must
note that these snakes have but two teeth, by which they convey their
poison; and they are placed in the upper jaw, pretty forward in the
mouth,