200 LEAVES FROM THE 



taken it by the neck, and beginning at his tail, has ate it, as one 

 woukl do a carrot or a stock of celery, without any seeming repug- 

 nance. 



What follows is strongly in favour of immunity by the 



use of vegetable antidotes. 



We know from history that where any country has been remark- 

 ably infested with serpents, there the people have been screened by 

 this secret. The Psylh and Marmarides of old, undoubtedly, were 

 defended in this manner, — 



Ad quorum eantus mites jacuere cerastfe. 



SiL. Ital. lib. iii. 



To leave ancient history, I can myself vouch that all the black 

 people in the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Fuuge 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 chamng 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 atten- 

 tion. 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 oixlered 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 almost immediately. I saw his seeming indifference, 

 for I constantly observed, that hoAvever 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 



