ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE. "277 



I return to the more immedia<e path of my fubjefl. 



Among the Indians of South- America, I do not find any The South 



o ' 11 Americans do 



traces of the notion that ferpents can falcmate other animals. „„£ poffefs this 



Pifo, the author of the Natural and Medical Ilijiory of the two notion, 

 Indies, feems to have been ftudious to bring together the ex- 

 traordinary thing's which have been related of the raltle-fnake. 

 But he fays not a fyilable concerning the fafcinating faculty 4)i 

 this reptile *. 



But whatever may have been the native country of the but it has fpreaa 

 i-iT n y • • 111 L ntj ^'^^^ all America 



notion which 1 am confidenng, it would have been well had g^j Europe. 



it been confined to favages. It is a tale which feems nicely 

 adapted to (he wit and fociety of rude and uncultivated nations. 

 Unfortunately, the progrefs of error and credulity is extremely 

 rapid. Their dominion is extenfive. The belief in the faf- 

 cinating faculty of ferpents has fpread through almoft all the 



Indian dying by the bite of a fnake, when out at war, or hunting ; 

 although they are then often bitten by the moft dangerous fnakes." 

 The Hiftory of the American Indians, &c. p. 235. London: 1775. 

 It is certain, from the teftimony of many perfons, that the bite of 

 the rattie-fnake has often proved mortal to the Indians, and others, 

 notwithftanding the boafiecJ fpecifics of thefe people. Father Caje- 

 tan Cattaneo fays, many Indians die with the bite of ferpents, 

 ** But,'* obferves the father, ** it is faid they commonly efcape with 

 life, when they can quickly apply the remedy which providence has 

 prepared of certain herbs, efpecially the fpikenard, which fome parts 

 of Paraguay produce in plenty. But when they are bit by the 

 rattle-fnake it is confidently afiured that the cafe admits no cure." 

 The third letter off. Cajetan Cattaneo. See A' Relation of the mijjions 

 of Paraguay, nvrote originally in Italian, by Mr. Muratori. Engllfli 

 Tranflation. p. 260. London : 1759. Father Cattaneo is here 

 fpeaking of the South-American rattle-fnake, the poifon of which, 

 I have little doubt, is more deleterious than that of the fame animal 

 in our part of North-America. Still, however, I am confident, 

 that this poifon, even in the moft fervid climates, is not always 

 mortal. 



* Gulielmi Pifonls medic! Amftelfedamenfis de Indiae utriufque 

 re natural! et medica libri quatuordecim. Amftelaedami : apud 

 Elzevirios, 1658. Some of Pifo'saffertions concerning the rattle- 

 fnake are very extravagant. Such are the following : '* Caudae ex- 

 tremitate in anum hominis immilTa, mortem infert confeftim ; ve- 

 nenum autem quod ore vel dentibus infundit, multo lentius vitam 

 tollit." p. 275. 



civilized 



