490 APPENDIX. 



Third inftance.—" The Hottentots, whom I confulted upon this iocif 

 dent, cxpreffed no fort ot aftoriifhment. No hing, they faid, was morit 

 (Common; the Cerpent had the faculty of attracting and fafcinating fucb 

 animal- as it wished to devour, I had tlien no faith ia fuch power ; but 

 fome lime after, fpeaking of the circumftance in a company of more thass 

 twenty perlons, in the numbei of whom was Colonel Gordon ; a captain 

 of his regiment confirmed the account of the Hottentots, and afTarcd me it 

 was an event whicli happened vciy fiequently. ' My tciiimony,' added 

 he, ' ought to have the more weight, as 1 had once nearly become myfelf 

 a viftim to this fafcination. While in garrifon at Ceylon, and amufing 

 inyfelf, like vou, in hunting in a niarfh, I was, in thecourfe of my fport, 

 fuddenly feized with a convuKive and involuntary trembling, different 

 from any thing I had ever experienced, and at the fame time was flrongly 

 attracted, and in ipite of myfelf, to a particular fpot of the maifh. Di- 

 refting my eyes to the fpot, I beheld, with feelings of horror, a ferpent of 

 an enormous fize, whofe look inftamly pierced me. Having, however, 

 not yet loft all power of motion, I embraced the opportunity before it 

 -kV3s too late, and faluted the repile with the contents of my fufce. Thi? 

 report v/as a talifman that broke the charm. All atcnce, as if by miracle;, 

 my convulfion ceafed ; I felt myfeif able to fly ; and the only inconven- 

 ience of this exr-aord'.nary adventure was a cold fweat, which was doubt= 

 3efs the effeft ot my fear, and of the violent agitation my fenles had UU' 

 dergrne." 



*' Such was the accou-nt given rne by this ofScer. I do not pretend to 

 vouch for its truth ; but the llory ot the moui'c, as well as of (he {hrike, \ 

 av^r to be a fadl." 



The fame phenomena then have been obferved in Europe, Alia, and Afri.r 

 ca, as well as in America. It then we iorm our iudgmcnt from obferva- 

 {ion, the conciufion will be, that in every part of the earth, the feipent hai 

 displayed different power^ and faculties, from what have appeared in o;h. 

 sraaimals. 



Remarks and CoKJe^ures on the above Accounts- 

 \. From the above accounts it can hardl\ be doubted, but that the v!= 

 per, the black, and the rattle fnake, have a power to afFeft biids, Iquir- 

 rels, and the human race, in an extraordinary and powerful manner ; fo 

 as to caufe them to approach within the reach of their devourirjj 

 jaws. To pliilofophers, who derive all their information from 

 their books, and to men who determine from theory and i^deni, the who'c 

 affair pafTes for vulgar delufion and follv : N^r will it. ever sppear pro- 

 bable to any perfon who is accuflomed to no other way of reafoniog, 

 than the metaphyfical method of determininfr fafis by realoningsa prion, 

 that nature has given to the ferpt nt very diiferent powers from ihofe 

 ■which fhe has imparted to any other fpecies of animab. But it ccrtain'y 

 is not from the men of metaphvOral theory and fyfiem, but fiom tli* 

 careful obferveis of nature, th^t tiie moft important information is to be 

 cxpefted. And it will be dilficult to find any defcft ir» the obfcrvations 

 that have been mentioned, or any ciicumllancc that denotes them to hav-f 

 been delulive or iallacious. I muff therefore admit it as a well atteilcd 

 h&., that nature has imparted to the ferpenis mentioned above the fiogulir 

 ind extraordinary power of facination ; or atFetiing other animals -in fii*.i. 

 ^raaancras to caulc them to approach witbia tiieir reach. 



