S2 Of the fascinating FACULTY 



I return to the more immediate path of my fuhjeit. 



Among the Indians of South- .America, 1 do not find 

 any traces of the notion that fcrpents can fafcinate other 

 animals, Pifo, the author of the Natural atid Medical 

 H'ljlory of the (li'o luJits, ieems to have been ftudious to 

 bring together the extraordinary things which have been 

 related of the rattle-fnake. But he fays not a fyllable 

 concerning the fafcinating faculty of this reptile*. 



But whatever may have been the native country of 

 the notion which I am confidering, it would have been 

 well had it been confined to favages. It is a tale which 

 feems nicely adapted to the wit and fociety of rude and 

 uncultivated nations. Unfortunately, the progrefs of er- 

 ror and of credulity is extremely rapid. Their dominion 

 is extenfive. The belief in the fafcinating faculty of fer- 

 pents has fpread through almoft all the civilized parts of 

 North- America. Nor is it confined to America. It has 

 made its way into Europe, and has there taken pofl!effion 

 of the minds of fcholars, of naturalifts, and of philofophers. 



teftimony of many perfons, that the bite of the rattle-fnake has often pro- 

 ved mortal to the Indians, and others, notwithftanding the boafted fpeci- 

 ficks of thefe people. Father Cajetan Cattaneo fays, many Indians die 

 with the bite of ferpents. " But," obferves the father, " it is faid they 

 commonly cfcapewith life, when they can quickly apply the remedy which 

 providence has prepared of certain herbs, efpecially the fpikenard, which 

 fome parts of Paraguay produce in plenty. But when they are bit by the 

 rattle-fnake it is confidently alTured that the cafe admits no cure." The 

 third letter of F. Cajetan Cattaneo. See yi Relation of the mijfions of Paraguay, 

 nvrote originally in Italian, by Mr. Muratori. Englilh Tranflation. p. 26c. 

 London: 1759. Father Cattaneo is here fpeaking of the South-American 

 rattle-fnake, the poifon of which, I have little doubt, is more deleterious 

 than that of the fame animal in our part of North-America. Still, how- 

 ever, I am confident, that this poifon, even in the moft fervid climates, is 

 not always mortal. 



* Gulielmi Pifonis medici Amftelasdamenfis de Indis utriufque re natu- 

 rali et medica libri quatuordecim. Amftflaedami : apud Elzevirios, 1658. 

 Some of Pifo's aflertions concerning the rattle-fnake are very extravagant. 

 Such are the following : " Caudae extremitate in anum hominis Immiila, 

 mortem infert confeftim ; venenum autem quod ore vel dentibus infundit, 

 raulto lentius vitam toUit." p. 275. 



I think. 



