Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1896 — TWO-HEADED SNAKES. [ARTICLE]

TWO-HEADED SNAKES.

South American Reptiles About Which No Doubt Exists. A “two-headed snake” sounds like a fairy tale. But two-headed snakes exist. They are common enough down on the Amazon River, and are well known to the native fishermen who get their living in the .great Marajo Bay, along the Loeatines River, and in the smaller ritgra running out of the bay 'and around the city of Para, on the coast of Brazil. Sometimes an inquisitive; traveller in. thdse regions, hearing talk of “twoheaded snakes,” will openly scoff at the idea. “Two-headed snakes, indeed! That is a story for the marines.” The native does not waste time in natural history discussion with the sneerer. “Seeln’s believin’” is his creed. He just starts out, catches a few of these two-headed water-snakes, and lets the incredulous traveller see for himself that well-known product of South America. The body of the snake is striped, giving it somewhat the appearance of a common garter snake. It is usually from one to three feet long. When gliding along it might be mistaken for a large eel, but when caught the remarkable fact is discovered that it possesses a perfectly formed and symmetrical head at each end of Its long body. The two heads are almost precisely alike in form, color and general appearance; one of them is very slightly smaller than the other. This is the second head of the snake.

But the eyes of this second head are sightless, and the mouth Is only a dummy mouth, the snake providing for its living at the other head, which is the principal one. The second head is, apparently, more for ornament than use, although it is so perfect a deception that a close examination is necessary to detect the working head from the ornamental one. Owing to a peculiarity in the snake’s method of coming to the surface of the water to breathe, some observers have thought that the second head possessed some respiratory powers. In swimming near the surface of the water, the snake always protrudes both heads above It, his body describing the shape of the letter U. If the traveller were in a nearby boat, he might think two snakes were resting lovingly side by side. This phenomenon of the two heads of one snake taking an airing is an ordinary affair in the bay of Marajo. The fishermen down there catch them in baited baskets or nets as they would eels, or after the style of the small boy who goes crabbing. However, they are not thought very highly of as food, where plenty of fish is obtainable. The Portugese fisherman who finds them In his eel-basket or fish-net, is more likely to cross himself with a muttered “Maria!” and throw them back into the water than to carry them home with him. A creature so unearthly as to possess a double allowance of heads is hardly safe eating for a good Christian. Some of these snakes have been brought to this country. Michael Gomez, an old Portuguese sailor, who has settled at Wilmington, Del., has three of the creatures presevered in alcohol When he caught them in the bay of Marajo, he tied all six of their heads together, winding a string tightly around their six necks, and thrust them Into a bottle of spirits. And so they exist to-day.