78 Or THE FASCINATING FACULTY 



1 have fought to dircover the original, or lource, of 

 this belief. 1 do not find any traces of it among the an- 

 cient writers of either Greece or Rome. I think, it is 

 mod likely that no fuch traces can be found. Lucan, 

 had ferpents been thought to poflefs a fifcinating faculty 

 in his age, and in the country in which he lived, would, 

 probably, have availed himfelf of its exiftence, in his 

 beautiful account of the march of Cato's army through 

 the Libyan-Defert* ; and had fuch a notion prevailed in 

 the earlier days of Lucretius, would we not find fome 

 mention made of it in the poem De Rerum Natura^ one 

 of the fineft and moft varied produftions of the human 

 mind ? Claflical fcholars may poflibly, however, difcover 

 the dawn of this notion in Greek and Roman authors, 

 unread by me. On this fubjeil, I have not pufhed my 

 inquiries as far as I wifhed to have done. It is not un- 

 likely that I may examine the queflion, more curioufly, 

 at fome future period. 



It is probable that in the mythology of Afia and of 

 Africa, we fhall difcover fome traces of this notion, fo 

 intimately connected with the fuperftitious credulity of a 

 people, and even fo naturally arillng out of an imperfed; 

 view of the manners of ferpents. 



If we may believe the Reverend Dr. Cotton Mather -f-, 

 Mr. Dudley ;};, and other perfons, who had refided in 

 North-America, we are to look for the beginning of this 

 ridiculous notion among our Indians. How far, how- 

 ever, this is really the cafe may, 1 think, be doubted. 

 It is certain that, at prefent, the opinion is by no means 

 univerfal among the Indians. Several intelligent gentle- 

 men, who are well acquainted with the manners, with 



* Pharfalia, lib. IX. 



f The Philofophical Tranfadlions, abridged, vol. v. part ii. no. 339. 

 p. 162. 

 \ Ibid. vol. vi. pan ili. no. 376. p. 45. 



the 



