Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — The Curling Sword Snake. [ARTICLE]

The Curling Sword Snake.

There is a little reptile belonging in Madagascar known as the scimitar snake, that is, the curling sword. Running along the back from head to tail is a blackish, horny substance, which bends with the convolusions of the snake’s body as readily as would a well-tempered 'teel spring, and throus'b.out its entire length it bears an ecifPas hard as fliut and as sharp as a razor. They are not poisonous, but when one springs on a man, which he is very likely to do, he will soon have a leg off unless cracked on the pate. Some snake specialists claim that the presence of this reptile on the island is the reason that there are no large quadrupeds to be found there at present, the curling sword in back ages having taken off legs faster than they could be oreated.—[Chicago Herald.