Show SAY SNAKES COMMIT SUICIDE indian theories of why the country Is not overrun with reptiles in the dialect of the maine indians the word which stands tor november contains eight s and six i s and ita meaning Is the month in which the snakes commit suicide so far as indian observation goes there Is no creature which preys upon shakea from preference A few small hawks will eat snakes when very hungry but all other creatures ot prey reject them As the female snake lays from sixty to eighty eggs every year all of which hatch the prospects of having the woods and fields overrun with would be excellent the indians say were it not for a suicidal habit which takes them lust before it Is time for them to crawl away and spend the winter in sleep in remote meadows and lots the lean snakes climb into crab apple trees and hawthorn bushes where they pierce their own bodies with the sharp spines and remain dangling until they are dead in the country bowra the snakes crawl into the wheel tracks and are over the indians account tor this by saying that none but the fattest and n ost vigorous snakes can withstand the cold of the northern winters and that the feeble members of the race prefer suicide to a lingering death |