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Natural Curiosities. [snakes]

     The serpents in the possession of Mr. Neal, on Sycamore-street, Petersburg, [Va.] are objects, in our opinion, eminently deserving the attention of the curious. To see a full grown Rattlesnake, [perhaps the most deadly poisonous of the serpentine race] upwards of four feet in lenth, 5 or 6 inches in circumference, with its fangs and rattles entire, so completely domesticated as to be handled with perfect safety, as to coil itself upon the neck and kiss the cheeks of its master-inshort, to be completely under his command as his dog, and to manifest the same grateful affection towards him, is certainly a phenomenon in nature, calculated to excite wonder and astonishment in the minds of the learned. Mr. N. has two other serpents equally docile.

     Mr. Neal, at the solicitation of a number of gentlemen, was induced to exhibit his rattlesnakes publicly at the Court-House on Tuesday evening last. They consist of a male and female, natives of North Carolina, the former full grown, the latter not so large. They are surprisingly tractable, and obedient to the command of their master, and manifest him a degree of attachment which we have been accustomed to witness only in our domestic animals. They were turned loose upon a large table, surrounded by the spectators, without exciting the least alarm. Indeed these reptiles, although in full possession of their life destroying power, yet appear willing to use the dreadful weapons which nature has given them, solely for the purpose of procuring food. They seem to bear no enmity towards man. A large Rat brought within reach of the elder Snake, received a single and apparently a slight blow from the reptile, which in ten minutes produced convulsions, and in fifteen minutes the rat was quite dead. The snake then swallowed his prey, body and limbs, at a mouthful.

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