64 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



scalding water cast upon them : but if it happen to 

 light within their chawes, or mouth, especially if 

 it come from a man that is fasting, it is present 

 death.* 



Ovid, in his poetical treatise on cosmetics,^ 

 thus opens his lessons to his fair pupils : 



Disci te, <juae faciem commendet cura, puellae : 

 Et quo sit vobis forma tuenda modo. 



Not only does he give them every information that 

 can add to the attractions of their toilet he does 

 more, he tells them what to avoid. He warns 

 them against witchcraft and incantation : 



Nee mediae Marsis finduntur cantious angues ; 

 Nee redit in fontes unda supina suos. 



Now let us see what Dr. Mead says to these 

 supernatural gifts : 



There were formerly in Africa a nation of peo- 

 ple called Psylli, famous for the cure of the bite of 

 serpents, with which the country above all others 

 abounds. (PLiN. Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 2.) These 

 people were thought to have something in their 

 constitution so contrary to poison, that no venom- 

 ous creature would touch them : and it was pre- 

 tended that they made this a trial of the legitimacy 

 of their children. The truth of the matter is, they 

 performed the cure in a manner very surprising to 

 the vulgar, that is by applying their mouth to the 

 wound and sucking out the venom. The Marsi in 

 Italy pretended to the same power. Some cere- 

 monies to overawe the patient and gain reverence 

 to the operator, were added to the performance : 

 but Celsus, the Latin Hippocrates, has wisely ob- 

 served tha, ' These people had no particular skill 

 in this management, but boldness confirmed by 

 use ; for the poison of the serpent, as likewise 

 some hunting poisons which the Gauls particularly 

 make use of, are not hurtful in the mouth but in 

 the wound. Therefore whosoever will, after their 

 example, suck the wound, will be in no danger 

 himself, and will save the life of the wounded 

 person." Medecin. lib. v. c. 17. J 



Aristotle (Hist. Anim. lib. viii. c. 29) states, 

 that the saliva of a man is hostile to most ser- 

 pents ; and Nicander declares that serpents fly from 

 even the smell of human spittle. 



Of the efficacy of sucking the wound there can 

 be no doubt, as we shall see when we come to 

 consider the treatment of persons bitten by ser- 

 pents. At present we must return to the regions 

 of enchantment, from which honest Dr. Mead has 

 drawn us aside, and call up one or two of the 

 ancient worthies whose names as serpent-charmers 

 and serpenticides have survived to this day. 



Whether Atyr was a Psyllian or Marsian does 

 not appear ; but Silius Italicus has imortalized 

 him and his powers : 



Nee non serpentes diro exarmare veneno 

 Doctus Atyr, tactuque graves sopire chelydors. 



Lucian has handed down the name of Babylonius 

 the Chaldaean, who, sallying forth in the morning 

 into the open country, pronounced certain sacred 

 names from an ancient volume, made his lustra- 

 tions with sulphur and a torch, stalked solemnly 

 round in a circle thrice, and evoked all the ser- 



* Holland's Pliny. 



* Mead on Poisons. 



t Medicamina faciei. 



pents that infested the region. The reptiles 

 obeyed him as if he had been another St. Patrick, 

 crept out at his summons whether they would or 

 no, and, no doubt, suffered accordingly. 



That it was part of the ancient priestcraft to 

 render the most venomous serpents innoxious hard- 

 ly needs proofs. 



Herodotus relates that, in the neighborhood of 

 Thebes, there are sacred serpents which are quite 

 harmless. That they were of the most deadly 

 nature is evident from his description : for he says 

 that they are diminutive in size, with two horns 

 that grow out of the top of the head. This ex- 

 actly describes the poisonous cerastes, of which 

 more anon. Herodotus goes on to state, that when 

 these serpents died they were buried in the tem- 

 ple of Zeus; for, writes the Halicarnassian, they 

 are sacred to that god (Ammon.)* The venom- 

 ous Naia Haje, El Haje, or Haje Nascher of the 

 modern Arabs, was chosen by the Ancient Egyp- 

 tians as the emblem of Cneph, the good deity, 



i[t(av^ and as the mark of regal dignity. The 

 front of the tiara of the majority of the statues of 

 the Egyptian deities and kings is adorned with this 

 serpent, and Denon's figure, with the forepart 

 erect and the hood expanded, represents it nearly 

 as it appears on the sculptured stone. 



Its congener, the deadly Nag,f the cobra de 

 capello of the Asiatic Portuguese, is still worship- 

 ped in some of the temples of India, where the 

 Hindus believe that, in sagacity and the malicious 

 tenacity with which it treasures up a wrong, it is 

 not inferior to man. They have been seen, upon 

 a pipe being played to them, to come forth from 

 their holes in the sacred edifice, and feed upon the 

 hand ; and it is when the people behold this most 

 destructive serpent in so subdued and docile a 

 state, that they believe that the god has entered 

 into the form. 



The only modes by which such docility and 

 harmlessness could be effected, without resorting 

 to what are usually termed supernatural means, 

 are actual extraction of the poison fangs and their 

 glands ; kindness, which, if judiciously and perse- 

 veringly managed, will tame almost every living 

 creature ; the use of certain herbs by the serpent- 

 charmer ; and, lastly, an innate possession and con- 

 sciousness of the power, with a firm conviction 

 that no serpent, however venomous, can injure 

 the operator. 



That most of the priests and jugglers availed 

 themselves of the obvious and mechanical means 

 of rendering such serpents as the cerastes and both 

 species of naia innoxious, there can be little doubt. 

 But when we come to examine the evidence, we 

 shall feel as little that some snake charmers may 

 handle the most venomous serpents, while in full 

 possession of their power of inflicting death, with 

 perfect safety. 



Conjurers (writes Hasselquist) are common in 

 Egypt. They are peasants from the country, who 

 come to Cairo to earn money this way. I saw one 



* Euterpe. 74. 



t JVai'a tripudians. 



