SNAKE BITES 



Herpestes contains about twenty. The mungoose is 

 Herpestes ichneumon ; and the beast is often spoken of as 

 the ichneumon. It has been also called, the Cat of 

 Pharaoh, and also by a somewhat remarkable change the 

 mouse of Pharaoh. It is found in northern Africa, in 

 Palestine and Asia Minor, and creeps into Spain. 



The mungoose is cat-like in its pursuit of rats and mice, 

 but nothing comes amiss to it in the way of animal life. 

 Buff on remarks that " its courage is equal to the sharp- 

 ness of its appetite, being neither intimidated by the 

 anger of the dog, nor the malice of the cat " an 

 excellent distinction between the characters of those 

 carnivores. The mungoose shares with the secret an? 

 vulture, the hedgehog, and the pig, some immunity 

 against the bite of venomous serpents. But it is not 

 so certain whether the immunity is not more due to the 

 activity of the creature is escaping the strokes of its 

 enemy than to any subtle physiological character. In 

 any case mungooses have been imported into Sta. 

 Lucia for the purpose of confronting the deadly Fer de 

 Lance. Legend holds that if the ichneumon is bitten 

 it immediately runs off, and eats the leaf of a particular 

 plant. It was thought also by the ancients that the 

 animal covered itself before engaging in these encounters 

 with a coat of mud, so as to render itself impervious to 

 the vengeful snake. The Rev. Mr. Topsell related in 

 the sixteenth century the story of these combats. 

 " When the aspe espyeth her threatening rage, presently 

 turning about her taile, provoketh the ichneumon to 

 combate, and with an open mouth and lofty head doth 

 enter the list, to her own perdition. For the ichneumon 

 being nothing afraid of this great bravado, receiveth the 

 encounter, and taking the head of the aspe in his mouth 

 biteth that off." The introduction of these creatures 

 into the West Indies was no doubt useful in the slaughter 

 of a few trigonocephali, and more rats, but the carnivore 



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