Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1890 — Snakes Shared Her Home. [ARTICLE]

Snakes Shared Her Home.

A singular character, by m-ame Martha Ann TilJson and wh>© was known as the “snake woman,” died near Salem, V*., recently'. She lived in a little oa du at the foot of Twelve OXllock Kn*®b, and led a hermit’s life, having uvo ene to ■'Share her abode except snakes. By the few who ■were ever allowed to see the interior of her cabin it is said to have literally swarmed with her strange ooompanioijs, with which she ate and slept, and which were to be seen lying in her bosom and cotied abont her meek, body and limbs whenever she was caught si >,'lll of. Her extraordinary predilection for these unpleasant ‘Creatures is supposed to have arisen from a morbid feeling that she was, like them, hated by men, for, naturally deformed, she received in addition an injury to the spiue while an infant, and, though perfectly sound in mind, was'of so sensitive a nature as to render her miserable and •uneasy in the presence of any but her parents. She was observed to steal away every day with a pan of milk, aud, on being followed, was found to be caressing a dozen or so hideous rattlesnakes, while they drank from the vessel whiah she held in her lap. Horrified, her .parents tried to reason with her, then to punish, and finally to confine her, in an endeavor to break her of her fondness for tbe reptiles, but ehe pined so for her,pets that they feared ehe would die if kept from them. * She was .a ilittle, fair woman of about 45, with sandy hair, very abundant t.nd long, which she wore .in a number of tight plaits, which, combined with her deformity aud the 'Odd, miscellaneous style of dressing, the result of her refusual to bold with a fellow-being, served to make her a most remarkable-looking object. She was looked upon as a witch by the negroes about, who declared her 'to bo possessed of the evil eye, and hated and feared her accordingly, itthough her life was a most harmless, quiet .one. She had been.dead some days when discovered, and her dead body was literally covered by a writhing mass of snakes, which had to be killed before it could be removed, for .the rentiles turned viciously <om all approaching the temains. On her heart was found coiled a huge ratttlesnaike dead.