ATTACKED BY AN ADDER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8823, 27 May 1907, Page 4

ATTACKED BY AN ADDER.

Henry Richards, of Maesteg, near Cardiff, who is known locally as “Henry the Snake Charmer,” had a terrible experience with an adder on a recent Saturday, from the effects of which ho is now recovering. He was showing an adder which he had just caught to some friends when it bit his finger. Ho merely laughed, and in bravado placed the reptile’s head in his mouth. The adder bit the roof of his mouth, aud with a shriek of terror Richards ran to the nearest surgerjq whore he collapsed. Ho was treated aud carried home unconscious, aud, although ho is getting better now, his arm aud face are terribly swollen. His father was killed by the bite of a snake. Richards has a habit of carrying at least one snake with him, and sometimes ho lias as many as nine in his pockets. His method of capturing snakes is interesting. lie takes a white handkerchief, to which the attention of the reptile is attracted. Then he grasps its tail aud places it across his arm, when it is said to become quite still under the man’s influence. Richards declares that he had been for three years in quest of the reptile which bit him.