On the fascinating Power of Stiahes. 381 



f< Beyond all other animals, however, serpents possess 

 most eminently this occult power : frequently are they seen 

 revolving on the branches of trees or on the ground medi- 

 tating their prey, — either birds, squirrels, rats, mice, bats, 

 frogs, hares, or other animals." 



Birds of prey, and particularly hawks, are frequently seen 

 flying followed by numbers of those sorts of small birds 

 upon which they are accustomed to feed. And I have been 

 several times assured by different persons, whose veracity I 

 have no reason to doubt, that if a man sees a hare sitting, 

 and instantly fixes his eyes on its eyes, it will remain mo- 

 tionless until it be taken up by the hand. 



M. Vaillant, in his New Travels into the Interior Parts 

 of Africa, says, that the fascinating power of serpents is 

 believed by the Hottentots as well as Negroes and Moors, 

 That serpents have this fascinating property is attested by- 

 great numbers of travellers into various parts of the world ; 

 and as it is asserted bv the natives of very distant countries 

 which have no communication with each other, there is 

 the greatest reason to believe that it takes place. I shall 

 not therefore trouble your readers with a long list of cita- 

 tions from various authors in confirmation of the fact, but 

 content myself with relating the following instances for the 

 information of those who may not be acquainted with its 

 effects. They are all, but the last, extracted from the Gen- 

 tleman's Magazine for the year 1765, page 511 ; and were 

 communicated by Mr. Peter Coliison from a correspondent 

 in Philadelphia. 



" A person of good credit was travelling by the. side of a 

 creek or small river, where he saw a ground-squirrel moving 

 to and fro between the creek and a great tree a few yards 

 distant : the squirrel's hair looked very rough, which showed 

 |ie was scared ; and his returns being shorter and shorter, 

 the man stood to observe the cause, and soon spied the head 

 and neck of a rattlesnake pointing at the squirrel through 

 a hole of the great tree, it being; hollow: the squirrel at 

 length gave over running, and laid himself quietly down 

 with his head close to the snake's: the snake then opened 

 his mouth wide and took in the squirrel's head ; upon which 

 the man gave the snake a whip across the back, and so the 

 squirrel being released he ran into the creek. 



" When I was about thirteen years old, I lived with 

 William Atkinson, an honest man, in Bucks county, who 

 returning from a ride in warm weather, told us, that while 

 his horse was drinking at a run, he heard the cry of a black- 

 bird, which he espied on the top of a sapling, fluttering and 

 v ' straining 



