LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



63 



FOR behold, I will send serpents and cockatrices 

 among you, which will not be charmed ; and they 

 shall sting you, saith the Lord. Jerem. viii. 17. 



Such is the version given in Barker's Bible,* 

 of the passage which figuratively threatens the 

 sending of the Babylonians among the Jews, 

 " who," as the old commentator writes in the 

 margin, " shall utterly destroy them in such sort, 

 as by no meanes they shall escape." 



The version now read in our churches runs 

 thus 



For behold I will send serpents, cockatrices, 

 among you t which will not be charmed, and they 

 shall bite yju, saith the Lord ; 



and is more correct, zoologically speaking. 



What the serpents threatened were, is more 

 apocryphal. The Greek version has " basilisks." 

 Both basilisks and cockatrices at least those so- 

 called venomous creatures of which such marvel- 

 lous tales are to be found in old authors are 

 fabulous creations. The Hebrew word is Tsep- 

 huon or Tsiphoni, (Tsepha or Zepha,) and has 

 been rendered as applicable to the aspic, the regu- 

 lus, (another word for the basilisk,) the hemior- 

 rhoos, the viper, and the cerastes. 



But whatever the species of serpents may be, 

 the passage above cited, as well as others, which 

 will readily occur to the scriptural scholar, shows 

 the great antiquity of the art of charming ser- 

 pents. Thus, in Psalm Iviii., we have the follow- 

 ing description of the wicked : 



4 Their poyson is even like the poyson of a ser- 

 pent : like the deafe adder that stoppeth his eare. 



5 Which heareth not the voyce of the inchanter, 

 though he be most expert in charming.f 



These incantations were too tempting to be 

 neglected by the poets. The shepherd in Virgil 

 alludes to their destructive powers : 



Carminibus Circe socios mutavit Ulixi : 

 Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis.t 



Manilius and Ovid use nearly the same expres- 

 sions. Tl e words of the former are 



Consultare fibras, et rumpere vocibus ang-ues. 



And the Poet of Love, the Moore of his day, 

 writes : 



Carmine dissiliunt abruptis faucibus angues 

 Inque suos fontes versa recurrit aqua. 



The Psylli, and their neighbors the Marmaridae, 

 were among the most famous for their power over 



* 1615. 



t Barker's Bible. In the version now read in our 

 churches the words are : 



4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like 

 the deaf adiler that stoppelh her ear ; 



6 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming 

 never so wisely. 



And in the Book of Common Prayer the words are : 



4 They are as venomous aa the poison of a serpent : even like 

 the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears ; 



5 Which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer: charm he 

 never so wisely. 



t Pfiarmaceutria, Eclog. viii. 

 Amor. lib. ii. El. 1. 



serpents. These African charmers of snakes, and 

 the Italian Marsi, carried, if we are to believe one 

 half of the accounts recorded of their feats, this 

 magic art to the highest point of infallibility. 

 The magi played upon pipes made of the legs and 

 bones of cats to call the serpents together ; upon 

 the same principle, I suppose, that actuated the 

 less ambitious enchanters, who, to rid themselves 

 of mice, played upon a pipe made of their verte- 

 brae, the dulcet and attractive notes of which 

 brought every mouse within hearing to listen to 

 the performance. 



Crates of Pergamus saith, that in Hellespont, 

 about Parium, there was a kind of men, (whom he 

 nameth Ophiogenes,) that if one were stung with 

 a serpent, with touching only will ease the paine. 

 And if they doe but lay their hands upon the 

 wound, are wont to draw forth all the venom out 

 of the body. And Varro testifies, that even at this 

 day there be some there who warish and cure the 

 stinging of serpents with their spittle, but there 

 are but few such as he saith. Agatharchides 

 writes that, in Affrick, the Psyllians (so called of 

 King Psyllus, from whose race they were descend- 

 ed, and whose sepulchre or tombe is at this day 

 present to be seene in a part of the greater Syrtes) 

 could do the like. These men had naturally that 

 in their own bodies, which, like a deadly bane and 

 poyson, would kill all serpents ; for the very air 

 and sent that breathed from them was able to stu- 

 pifie and strike them starke dead. And by this 

 means they used to try the chastitie and honestie 

 of their wives. For so soon as they were delivered 

 of children, their manner was to expose and pre- 

 sent the silly babes new borne, unto the utmost fell 

 and cruel serpents they could find : for if they were 

 not right, but gotten in adultery, the said serpents 

 would not avoid and fly from them. This nation 

 verily in generall hath been defeated and killed up 

 in manner all by the Nasomenes, who now inhabit 

 those parts wherein they dwelt : howbeit a kind 

 remains still of them, from those that made shift 

 away and fled, or else were not present at the said 

 bloudy battel ; but there are very few of them at 

 this day left.* 



The author of Thaumatographia, in his chapter 

 on nutrition, alludes to the Ophiogenes of the 

 Hellespont, and says that they fed upon serpents, 

 and that a certain man who rejoiced in that diet, 

 was thrown into a cask filled with them, and ie- 

 mained intact. This probably was the envoy 

 Hexagon, who said that he came from the Psylli 

 or Marsi, and whom the Roman consuls, ty way 

 of testing the trdth of his mission, cast into a 

 vessel swarming with venomous snakes, which 

 miraculously harmed him not. 



The Marsians in Italy at this present continue 

 with the like naturall vertue against serpents : 

 whom being reputed to be descended from ladie 

 Circes son,f the people in this regard do highly 

 esteem, and are verily persuaded that they have in 

 them the same facultie by kinde. And what great 

 wonder is this, considering that all men carry 

 about them that which is poyson to serpents : for 

 if it be true that is reported, they will no bet- 

 ter abide the touching with man's spittle, than 



* Holland's Pliny. 



t Marsus. 



