104 ON TUB PHYSIOGNOMY OF SERPENTS. 



and the succession of the infinity of ages ; the fables, last- 

 ly, of Achelous, of Jupiter metamorphosed into a serpent 

 to captivate the object of his love, and many others, attest 

 that the ancients attributed to the serpent qualities the 

 most opposite, and that the same being, according to them, 

 united at the same time force with timidity, beauty with a 

 shape which inspired horror, mildness with cunning or de- 

 ceit. 



We ought to attribute to causes similar to those we have 

 mentioned, to that superstition — an inheritance of human 

 nature — the innumerable errors which, even to our times, 

 have disfigured the history of serpents. A vast number of 

 those fables, invented in the infancy of the human race, and 

 transmitted to posterity by classic authors, are spread abroad 

 so as to acquire popularity from tlie authority which is ac- 

 corded to those 'v\Titers. To })rove this assertion it is suffi- 

 cient to recollect what several modern authors have repeated • 

 in their works, that hogs kill snakes to feed upon them, 

 and that serpents find in milk a great dainty ; errors which 

 date from the times of Aristotle* and PLiNY,t but pro- 

 pagated in Europe, in America, and other parts of the 

 world. We read in the same authors,;}; that the ichneumon, 

 to defend itself against the bites of snakes, bedaubs itself 

 with mud, and that it eats a certain herb which those rep- 

 tiles hold in aversion. This prejudice, which rests on the 

 simple fact that the little mammiferae we speak of, as well 

 as many others, are the natural enemies of serpents, is pre- 

 served in various parts of the East Indies. The plant 

 which possesses the virtue of repelling snakes, according to 

 KiEMFER,§ is the Ophiorhiza Mungos, according to others, 

 the Anstolochia indica, Vihich. the jugglers of those countries 

 pretend to use with success ; but the experiments of Rus- 

 sell || have demonstrated that all these qualities repose 

 only on popular prejudices. The same holds good Avith 

 regard to the employment of the Folygala Senega^^ a plant 



* Hist. Jnim., ix. 2. f Hist. Natur. viii. 14. 



* Aristotlis, ix. 7. Plin., viii. 36. 

 § Amosnitates Exoticce, i. p. 305. 



II Indian Sa-pents, i. p. 86. 



T Palisot Bauvais, Ap. Latreille, iii. p. 90. 



