192 LEAVES FROM THE 



tractive notes of wMcli brought every mouse within hear- 

 ing to listen to the performance. 



Crates of Pergamus saith, that in Hellespont, about Parium, 

 there was a kind of men (whom he nameth Ophiogenes), that if 

 one were stung with a serpent, with touching only will ease the 

 paine. And if they doe but lay their hands upon the wound, are 

 wont to draw forth all the venom out of the body. And Varro 

 testifies^ that even at this day there be some there who warish and 

 cure the stinging of serpents with their spittle, but there are but 

 few such as he saith. Agatharchides writes that, in Affrick the 

 Psyllians (so called of King Psyllus, from whose race they were 

 descended, and whose sepulchre or tombe is at this day present to 

 be scene in a part of the greater Sp-tes) could do the like. These 

 men had naturally that in their own bodies, which, like a deadly 

 bane and poyson, would kill al serpents : for the very air and sent 

 that breathed from them was able to stupifie and strike them 

 Starke dead. And by this means they used to try the chastitie 

 and honestie of their wives. For so soon as they were delivered 

 of children, their manner was to expose and present the silly babes 

 new borne, unto the most fell and cruell serpents they could find : 

 for if they were not right but gotten in adultery, the said serpents 

 would not avoid and fly from them. This nation verily in generall 

 hath been defeated and killed up in manner all by the Nasomenes, 

 who now inhabit those parts wherin they dwelt : howbeit a kind 

 remains still of them, from those that made shift away and fled, 

 or else were not present at the said bloudy battell ; but there are 

 very few of them at this day left.* 



The author of Thaumatograpliia, in his chapter on 

 nutrition, alludes to the Ophiogenes of the Hellespont, 

 and says that they fed upon serpents, and that a certain 

 man, who rejoiced in that diet, was thrown into a cask 

 filled with them, and remained intact. This probably 

 was the envoy Hexagon, who said that he came from the 

 Psylli or Marsi, and whom the Roman consuls, by way 

 of testing the truth of his mission, cast into a vessel 

 swarming with venomous snakes, which miraculously 

 harmed him not. 



The Marsians in Italy at this present continue with the like 



Holland's Pliny. 



