LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



them at Cairo, in the house of Julian and Rosa, 

 crawl up the side of a box, in which there were 

 many, and there lie still as if hiding himself, till 

 one of the people who brought them to us came 

 near him, and though in a very disadvantageous 

 posture, sticking, as it were, perpendicular to the 

 side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three 

 feet, and fastened between the man's forefinger 

 and thumb, so as to bring the blood. The fellow 

 showed no signs of either pain or fear, and we kept 

 him with us full four hours, without his applying 

 any sort of remedy, or his seeming inclined to do 

 so. 



So much for the bite. But it may be said that 

 the serpent may have been so mutilated as to make 

 his bite innoxious. 



To make myself assured (adds Bruce) that the 

 animal was in its perfect state, I made the man 

 hold him by the neck, so as to force him to open his 

 mouth, and lacerate the thigh of a pelican, a bird 

 I had tamed as big as a swan. The bird died in 

 about thirteen minutes, though it was apparently 

 affected in fifty seconds ; and we cannot think this 

 was a fair trial, because a very few minutes before 

 it had bit the man, and so discharged part of its 

 virus, and it was made to scratch the pelican by 

 force, without any irritation or action of its own. 



Again, speaking of the incantation of serpents, 

 Bruce says 



There is no doubt of its reality. The Scriptures 

 are full of it. All that have been in Egypt have 

 seen as many instances as they chose. Some have 

 doubted that it was a trick, and that the animals so 

 handled had been first trained, and then disarmed 

 of the power of hurting ; and, fond of the discovery, 

 they have rested themselves upon it, without ex- 

 ' periment, in the face of all antiquity. But I will 

 ; not hesitate to aver that I have seen at Cairo (and 

 jjjff this may be seen daily without trouble or expense) 

 a man, who came from above the catacombs, where 

 the pits of the mummy-birds are kept, who has 

 taken a cerastes with his naked hand from a number 

 of others lying at the bottom of the tub, has put it 

 upon his bare head, covered it with the common red 

 cap he wears, then taken it out, put it in his 

 breast, and tied it about his. neck like a necklace ; 

 after which it has been applied to a hen and bit it, 

 which has died in a few minutes ; and, to complete 

 the experiment, the man has taken it by the neck, 

 and, beginning at his tail, has ate it, as one would 

 do a carrot or a stock of celery, without any seem- 

 ing repugnance. 



What follows is strongly in favor of immunity 

 by the use of vegetable antidotes. 



We know from history that where any country 

 has been remarkably infested with serpents, there 

 the people have been screened by this secret. 

 The Psylli and Marmarides of old, undoubtedly, 

 were defended in this manner 



Ad quorum cantus mites jacudre cerastse. 



SIL. ITAL. lib. iii. 



To leave ancient history, I can myself vouch that 

 all the black people in the kingdom of Sennaar, 

 whether Funge or Nuba, are perfectly armed against 

 the bite of either scorpion or viper. They take the 

 cerastes in their hands at all times, put them in 

 their bosoms, and throw them to one another, as 

 children do apples or balls, without having irritated 



them by this usage so much as to bite. The 

 Arabs have not this secret naturally, but from their 

 infancy they acquire an exemption from the mortal 

 consequences attending the bite of these animals, 

 by chewing a certain root, and washing themselves 

 (it is not anointing) with an infusion, of certain 

 plants in water. 



The next paragraph is particularly worthy of 

 attention. It points out the subdued state of the 

 serpent when in the hands of one of these protected 

 people. 



One day, when I was with the brother of Shekh 

 Adelah, prime minister of Sennaar, a slave of his 

 brought a cerastes, which he had just then taken 

 out of a hole, and was using it with every sort of 

 familiarity. I told him my suspicion that the teeth 

 had been drawn, but he assured me they were not, 

 as did his master Kittou, who took it from him, 

 wound it round his arm, and, at my desire, ordered 

 the servant to carry it home with me. I took a 

 chicken by the neck, and made it flutter before 

 him ; his seeming indifference left him, and he bit 

 it with great signs of anger ; the chicken died al- 

 most immediately. I say, his seeming indifference, 

 for I constantly observed, that however lively the 

 viper was before, upon being seized by any of these 

 barbarians he seemed as if taken with sickness and 

 feebleness, frequently shut his eyes, and never 

 turned his mouth towards the arm of the person 

 that held him. I asked Kittou how they came to 

 be exempted from this mischief; he said they were 

 born so ; and so said the grave and respectable men 

 among them. Many of the lighter and lower sort 

 talked of enchantments by words and by writing, 

 but they all knew how to prepare any person by 

 medicines, which were decoctions of herbs and 

 roots. 



Bruce was evidently satisfied in his own mind 

 that a person could be so prepared as to do the 

 same feats as these fascinators performed ; and it 

 is to be regretted that he did not make the exper- 

 iment, or have it made, though it can hardly be a 

 subject of wonder or blame that he did not. 



I have seen many (says Bruce) thus armed for a 

 season "do pretty much the same feats as those that 

 possessed the exemption naturally. The drugs 

 were given me, and 1 several times armed myself 

 as I thought, resolved to try t the experiment, but 

 my heart always failed me when I came to the 

 trial ; because, among these wretched people, it 

 was a pretence they might very probably have shel- 

 tered themselves under, that I was a Christian 

 that, therefore, it had no effect upon me. I have 

 still remaining by me a small quantity of this root, 

 but never had an opportunity of trying the experi- 

 ment. 



On the 26th of May, the day on which I first 

 saw the hippopotamus, I witnessed the performance 

 of the Arab snake-charmers, of whom I have al- 

 ready spoken. After their dinner they came from 

 the giraffe-house, proceeding along the gravel 

 walk to the reptile-house, on the floor of which, 

 about three o'clock in the afternoon, or a little 

 later, the performance took place. The charmers 

 took up a position at the end of the house, opposite 

 to the lodging of the great Pythons, of whose size 

 the old Arab had heard with something very like 



