246 legerdeytain with serpents. Oct. 2 
borafsus flabeliiformis ; and there maintaining itself by 
its hooks, it makes similar darts against the descend- 
ing stream, in search of insects, till it reaches the top. 
This is all the information I can give you at pre- 
sent on the subject -of fifh, I will endeavour soon to 
ascertain what I have proposed. | 
4 curious specres of legerdematn respecting serpents. 
To thow you how easily a person my be deceived, 
Iwill, give youan anecdote of myself. Soon after my ar- 
rival here, when I was amused by the slight of hand 
tricks, tumbling, rope dancing &c. in which a pasti- 
cular cast of natives are very expert ; these people, 
who carry about snakes, and pretend to have authori- 
ty over them, came to’ me and told me that they 
would catch, by the power of music, as many snakes 
as | chose. I was a good deal surprised at what 
they said, and resolved to putit to the test. One of 
them went a little way from the house, playing on a . 
pipe and uttering incantations, saying that if the 
snake would come to him he would treat it well, 
give it butter milk, and send it to the mountains 
where it would not be molested; he then pretend- 
ed to look very attentively at a hole, still conti- 
nuing to play, and louder ; when by and by he saw 
a snake, and catiou sly introducing his hand, brought 
ont a large cobra de capella, coliber naga. In this 
way he caught two or three close by the honse. I 
then carried him to different parts of the garden; 
and he caught so many that I at last thought I had 
proof positive. Soon after I had brought them to the 
house, Dr Anderson came home: and on hearing 
1 
what I believed, in .consequence, he desired me to 
