62 A NATURAL HISTORY 



Smoe are of Opinion, that the Afp is David'?, deaf Adder ^ 

 Pial. Iviii. 45. ney are like the deaf Adder that flops her Ear, which 

 will 7iot hearken to the Voice of Charmers, charming never Jo loifely. 

 They are like the deaf yifp, fays the Hebrew and the Septuagirit. 

 The word in the Original * P^/'^f;?, q. d. Unperfuadednefs-y hence, 

 wicked Men are called ATrjiSfi,- in the New Tefl, unperfuadable, 

 which the E/i!^/{//^ Tranllation renders Difobedie?itj Tit. i. 16. 



The common Tradition is, that when Men by Inchantments 

 and Charms have attempted to take thefe Serpents, they flopt 

 one Ear with the Tail, and the other was either deaf, or made fo 

 bv laying it clofe to the Ground. Some are of Opinion, that 

 there is a fort of Afp that really is deaf, which of all others is the 

 mofi: dangerous, and is meant by the Royal Prophet here. 



That there was a Pradice of charming Serpents by fome Art 

 or other, fo that they could neither bite nor fling, feems evident 

 from the facred Writings, e.g. Eccl. x. 11. Surely the Serpent 

 will bite without Inchantment. Jer. viii. 17. Til fend Serpents, 

 Cockatrices^ among yon ^ that will not be charmed, and they fl:all 

 bite voii^ lavs the Lord. 



Among other Things the Word Charmer, fome fay, figni- 

 £es one that conjoins and confociates; that is, that by Sorcery 

 gather'd Serpents together, and m^ade them tame and familiar; 

 or the Perfon may be fo call'd, becaufe by Magick Art, he aflb- 

 ciated with Demons, the Lords of Serpents. 



W E are inform'd by Hiftory, of fome who have fummoned 

 together a hundred Serpents at oncej but by what method, I 

 leave the Reader to judge. Mont anus, a famous Phyfician, and 

 Profeilbr at Padua in Italy, fays he faw this Coadunation of 

 Serpents. 



T H E learned Dodor Cafaubon tells us, he had feen a Man, 

 who fi-om the Country around him, would draw Serpents into 

 the Fire, which was inclos'd in a magical Circle : When one of 

 them, bigger than the reft, would not be brought in, upon repeat- 

 in'>- the atbrefaid Charms, it fubmitted to the Flames. 



W E read of a famous Charmer at Saltsburgh in the Circle of 

 Bavarian that, when (in fight of the People) he had charm'd a 

 (Treat Nunibsr of Serpents into a Ditch, where he kill'd them; 



there 



