SMALL QUADRUPEDS. 803 



the combatants returned to these same plants to be 

 cured of their wounds and reanimated for the fray. 

 So intent were they upon the struggle that the customs 

 officer was permitted to approach quite near. Being 

 curious about the herb to which the Weasel had re- 

 course, he pulled it up while the pugnacious little 

 animal was engaged with his adversary. Now when 

 the Weasel returned, wounded and bleeding, to the 

 magic herb, lo, it was gone ! While he searched here 

 and there in vain for the antidote to the poison that 

 was working in his veins, the serpent, restored to 

 health and strength, returned to the attack, and 

 conquered easily. 



I asked the douane-man to show me those two 

 plants. One of them he found without much difficulty 

 by the border of the little torrent where we sat. This 

 was the vulnerary or " simple " which had cured the 

 wounds inflicted by the Weasel. I was naturally 

 much more anxious to know the sure and certain 

 remedy for snake-bite. Was it some deadly weed 

 rising rank and poisonous from the foam of Cerberus, 

 and potent, on the similia similibus principle, to 

 counteract the venom of the viper ? Was it Hemlock 

 with spotted stalk, or Henbane, or the shrieking 

 Mandrake ? No one will ever know ; for the douanier 

 could remember neither the leaf nor the blossom of 

 the herb which he had pulled up from the ground. 

 Perhaps it was that mysterious charm which Hermes 

 of the golden rod gave to Odysseus to preserve him 

 from the spells of the enchantress Circe : 



" Its root was black, its flower resembled milk ; 

 Gods called it Moly ; difficult for men 

 To dig it ; but the gods can all things do." 



