62 A VOYAGE TO Book T. 



lignanf, though timely care prevents its being fatal. 

 The things of the other kinds pruducc fevers, numb- 

 neiies in the hands and feet, forehead, ears, nofe and 

 lips, tumours in the tongue, and dimnels of tight ; 

 thefe diforders laft generally 24 or 48 hou-rs, when, by 

 degrees, the patient recovers. The natives imagine, 

 that a tcorpion falling into the water purifies it, and 

 therefore drnik it without any examination. They 

 are fo aceuftomed to thefe iní'eóls, that they do not 

 fear them, but readily lay hold of them, taking care 

 not to touch them only in the laft vertebrai of the 

 tail, to avoid being flung; fometimes they cut their 

 tails off and play with them. We more than once 

 entertained ourfelves with an experiment of putting a 

 fcorpion into a glafs velTel, and injeótinga little fmoke 

 of tobacco, and immediately by ñopping it found 

 that its averiion to this fmell is fuch, that it falls into 

 the mofl furious agitations, till, giving itfelf feveral 

 repeated flings on the head, it finds relief bydeflroy- 

 ing itfelf. Hence we lee that its poifon has the fame 

 cífe¿l on itfelf as on others. 



Here is alfo another infcit called caracol foldado, 

 or the foldier-fnail. From the middle of the body to 

 the poflerior extremity it is fliaped like the common 

 fnail, of a whitifh colour and a fpiral form : but the 

 other half of the body refembles a crab, both in fize 

 and the difpofition of its claws. The colour of this, 

 •which is the principal part of its body, is of a light 

 brown. The ufual lenglji, exclufive of the tail, is^" 

 about two inches, and the breadth one and a half. It 

 is deliitute both of Ihell and fcale, and the body every 

 where flexible. Its refource againil injuries is to feek a 

 fnail-fliell of a proper fize, in which it takes up its 

 habitation. Sometimes it drags this inail-iliell with 

 it, and at other times quits it, while it goes out in 

 queft of food; but, on the leall appearance of danger, 

 it hafiens back to the fhell, and thrulls itfelf into it, 

 beg.inning with its hind part, ib that the ibre part fills 



the 



