NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 205 



like mark on the back of the neck that distinguishes 

 the Asiatic species, is of a somewhat dark and greenish 

 hue, marked with brownish, and attaining the length of 

 from three to five feet. This is the serpent which the 

 Egyptian conjurers know how to render stiff and immov- 

 able by pressing the nape of the neck -with the finger, 

 and thus thro\ving it into a sort of catalepsy. The ser- 

 pent is thus apparently converted into a rod or stick. 



Traces of this conversion occur in the Scriptures, — for 

 instance, where Pharaoh's wise men cast down their rods, 

 which were turned into serpents, but were devoured by 

 the serpent of Aaron. 



Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall be turned 

 into a serpent. 



Then went Moses and Aaron unto Pharaoh, and did even as the 

 Lord had commanded : and Aaron cast foorth his rod before 

 Pharaoh and before his servants, and it was tinned into a serpent. 



Then Pharaoh called also for the wise men, and sorcerers ; and 

 those charmers also of Egypt did in like manner with their enchant- 

 ments. For they cast downe every man his rod, and thev were 

 turned into serpents : but Aaron's rod devoured their rods.* 



Dr. Smith, in his Zoology of South Africa, gives 

 figures of no less than three varieties of jVaia haje. 

 They do not appear to differ specifically from the naia of 

 Eg}'pt. Dr. Smith closely compared them, and he could 

 not perceive greater differences between some of the 

 individuals from the Cape and those from Eg-j-pt than 

 he had found between some of those inhabiting Southern 

 Africa. The young of the Cape reptile corresponded 

 exactly with the fig-ure of the yoimg Eg}-ptian naia given 

 by Geofii'oy. 



The rarest of the southern varieties is called by the 

 colonists Spughslang, or spitting-snake, from its alleged 

 power of ejecting its poison to a distance. Dr. Smith 



* Barker's Bible, Gen. c. \\\. See also c. iv., where it is written 

 that the rod of Moses was turned into a serpent. 



