6o A NATURAL HISTORY 



I N America J fliys a celebrated Hiftorian, are found Afps with 

 Stings in the Tail, wherewith they ftrike and kill *. 



The Banks of Nilus abound with AJps^ who have Sagacity 

 enough to remove their Habitations to a place of Safety, feveral 

 days before that River overflows the Rifing-Grounds about it: 

 'Tis alfo faid the Crocodile and Hortoifc recede with their Eggs, to 

 a Situation not acceffible by that mighty Flood -, a Flood that 

 makes the Land of Egypt ^ a Region of Fertility, a Flood dreaded 

 by thefe Animals, and ador'd by the Egyptians^ thofe Sons of 

 Contradiction, who confecrated their Animals to the Gods, and 

 then worfhipped them, and upon Occaiions kill'd them. (Can 

 we behold fuch Inftinds in the Crocodile^ &c. without acknow- 

 ledging the Divine Wifdom that ordain'd 'em !) No Nation more 

 knowing, and more fottiih, e.g. Upon the Statue of Mi?2erva^, 

 or the Goddefs Ifis^ was this Infcription njiz. I was fie that was^ 

 that am^ and p^ all be, and that a?n every thitig. Which being an 

 exa6t Interpretation of the Word Jehovah, and the fame Defini- 

 tion the Almighty appropriates to himfelf, I can't, fays the Learned 

 yurieu, conceive, how a Nation that was arriv'd to fuch a high 

 Degree of Knowledge, Hiould have worfhip'd Bullocks — as Gods, 



P L UTA RCU gives a flrange relation of them, viz, that in caie 

 of any extraordinary Calamity, as War, Plague, Famine, the Egyp- 

 tian PrieiiS ufed to threaten the facred Beajls moft horribly : If 

 they failed to help them, they whipt them till the Blood foUow'd 5 , 

 and if the Calamity did flill continue, they kill'd thofe facred 

 Beads by way of Puniihment -f*. The Reverfe of this is given us 

 in a Clan of 'Tartars, who, when expofed to any imminent Ca- 

 lamity, facrifice their Priefls, in order to intercede for them with 

 the Gods in the other World. 



It has been faid, that the Afp, when exafperated, did, with 

 an erected Head, caft out of its Mouth liquid Poiibn; but it 

 now appears^ it darts it only by its Bite, or by Poifon taken 

 from it by force, and poured into a Wound made by another; 

 and both the Wounds fo m.ade, foon terminate in an ea/y plea- 

 [tint Exit; which is fuppofed to be the reafon why Queen Cleo- 

 patra chofe this kind of Deaths that is, to poifon herfelfbyan 

 Afpick Dofe. This reminds me of a certain Herb I have read of 



in 



*■ Jonfonus Hijl, Nut. de Serpeyitlhus. p. 15. f Juneu from Plut, dglf.^ Oj7r> 



