POISON-SNAKES. 21 1 



there are facts well attested that cannot be so 

 summarily disposed of. Bruce, who often wit- 

 nessed these performances, affirms that there can 

 be no doubt of their reality. *' Some," he says, 

 " have doubted that it was a trick, and that the 

 animals so handled had been first trained, and 

 then disarmed of their power of hurting : and, 

 fond of the discovery, they have rested themselves 

 upon it, without experiment, in the face of all 

 antiquity. But I will not hesitate to aver, that I 

 have seen at Cairo (and this may be seen daily, 

 without trouble or expense) a man who came from 

 above the catacombs, where the pits of the mummy- 

 birds are kept, who has taken a Cerastes with his 

 naked hand from a number of others lying at the 

 bottom of the tub, has put it upon his bare head, 

 covered it with the common red cap he wears, 

 then taken it out, put it in his breast, and tied it 

 about his neck like a necklace ; after which it has 

 been applied to a hen, and bit it, which has died 

 in a few minutes; and, to complete the experi- 

 ment, the man has taken it by the neck, and, be- 

 ginning at the tail, has ate it, as one would do a 

 carrot or a stock of celery, without any seeming 

 repugnance. 



" I can also avouch, that all the black people in 

 the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Funge or Nuba, 

 are perfectly armed against the bite of either 

 scorpion or viper. They take the Cerastes in their 

 hands at all times, put them in their bosoms, and 

 throw them at one another as children do apples 

 or balls, without having irritated them by this 

 usage so much as to bite. The Arabs have not 

 this secret naturally ; but from their infancy they 

 acquire an exemption from the mortal con- 



