NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 199 



creeps with his side towards the person, and his head averted, till 

 judging his distance, he turns round, springs upon him, and fastens 

 upon the part next to him ; for it is not true what is said, that the 

 cerastes does not leap or spring. I saw one of them at Cairo, in 

 the house of Julian and Rosa, crawl up the side of a box, in which 

 there were many, and there lye still as if hiding himself, till one 

 of the people who brought them to us came near him, and though 

 in a very disadvantageous posture, sticking, as it were, perpendicular 

 to the side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, 

 and fastened between the man's forefinger and thumb, so as to 

 bring the blood. The fellow showed no signs of either pain or 

 fear, and we kept him mth us full four hours, without his applying 

 any sort of remedy, or his seeming inclined to do so. 



So much for the bite. But it may be said that the 

 serpent may have been so mutilated as to make his bite 

 innoxious. 



To make myself assured (adds Bruce) that the animal was in its 

 perfect state, I made the man hold him by the neck so as to force 

 him to open his mouth, and lacerate the thigh of a pelican, a bird 

 I had tamed as big as a swan. The bird died in about thirteen 

 minutes, though it was apparently affected in fifty seconds ; and 

 we cannot think this was a fair trial, because a very few minutes 

 before it had bit the man, and so discharged part of its wus, and 

 it was made to scratch the pelican by force, without any irritation 

 or action of its ov^na. 



Again, speaking of the incantation of serpents, Bruce 

 says,— 



There is no doubt of its reality. The Scriptures are full of it. 

 All that have been in Egypt have seen as many instances as they 

 chose. Some have doubted that it was a trick, and that the 

 animals so handled had been first trained, and then disarmed of 

 the 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 wdth 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 experiment, the man has 



