282 ©-N THE FASCINATING FACULTY, 



I beg leave, in this place, to quote that part of Mr. de la 

 C^pede's work which relates to the quellion of my memoir. 

 His account. Speaking of the boiquira, or rattle-fnake, my ingenious 



infeai(m' in the ^""iend has the following words : "His infedtious breath, 

 >rcath. which fometimes agilates the little animals he is about to 



feize, may alfo prevent iheir efcape. The Indians relate, 

 that a rattlc-lnake is often feen, curled round a tree, darting 

 terrible glances at a fquirrel, which after expreffing its fear by 

 its cries and its tremour, falls at the foot of the tree, where it 

 is devoured. Mr. Vofmaer (at the Hague), who has made 

 feveral experiments on the bite of a rattle-fnake, which he 

 had alive, fays that the birds and mice, which were thrown 

 into the cage, would immediately endeavour to fquat in a 

 corner, and that foon after, as if feized with deadly anguifti, 

 they would run towards their enemy, who continually Ibock 

 his rattles : but this effe6l of a mephitick and fetid breadth 

 has been fo much exaggerated, and mifreprefented, that it 

 becomes miraculous. 

 Fafcinatingpro- *' It has been faid," continues our author, " that the rattle- 

 arife t"om^this ° ^"^^^^ ^^^ ^ faculty of enchanting, as it were, the animal he 

 «aufe. intended to devour; that by the power of his glance, he could 



oblige the vidims to approach by fmall degrees, and finally to 

 fall into his mouth ; that even man could not refift the magic 

 force of his fparkling eyes ; and that under violent agitations 

 he would expofe himfelf to the envenomed tooth of the ferpent, 

 inftead of endeavouring to efcape. If the rattle-fnake had 

 been more generally known, and if his natural hiflory had en- 

 gaged more attention, other circumftances, ftill more extraor- 

 dinary, would have been added to thefe miraculous feats ; 

 and how many fables would not have been fubftituted to the 

 fimple effect of a peftilential breath, which, however, has by 

 no means been either fo frequent or.fo fatal as fome naturalifls 

 have-believed. 

 Or that the " We may prefume, with Kalm, that, for the moft part, 



inimal may have ^^gn ^ bird, a fquirrel, or any other animal, has been feen 

 fciuen, precipitating itfelf from the top of a tree into the jaws of a 



rattle-fnake, it had been already bitten*; that after efcaping, 



it 



* I do not find that Kalm has adopted this fyftem of explanation, 



in his 'Tra'vels. On the contrary, in this work, he gives Ibmc 



judicious jeafons for rejefting this mode of explanation. Tm'vels, 



