THE SERPENT KIND. 



723 



OF SERPENTS. 



CHAPTER CLX1V. 



OF SERPENTS IN GENERAL. 



WE now come to a tribe that not only their 

 deformity, their venom, their ready malignity, 

 but also our prejudices, and our very religion, 

 have taught us to detest. The serpent has 

 from the beginning been the enemy of man ; 

 and it has hitherto continued to terrify and 

 annoy him, notwithstanding all the arls that 

 have been practised to destroy it. Formidable 

 in itself, it deters the invader from the pursuit; 

 and from its figure capable of finding shelter 

 in a little space, it is not easily discovered by 

 those who would venture to try the encounter. 

 Thus possessed at once of potent arms and in- 

 accessible or secure retreats, it baffles all the 

 arts of man, though never so earnestly bent 

 upon its destruction. 



For this reason, there is scarce a country in 

 the world that does not still give birth to this 

 poisonous brood, that seem formed to quell 

 human pride, and repress the boasts of 

 security. Mankind have driven the lion, die 

 tiger, and the wolf, from their vicinity ; but 

 the snake and the viper still defy their power, 

 and frequently punish their insolence. 



Their numbers, however, are thinned by 

 human assiduity ; and it is possible some of 

 the kinds are wholly destroyed. In none of 

 the countries of Europe are they sufficiently 

 numerous to be trulv terrible ; the philosopher 

 can meditate in the fields without danger, and 

 the lover seek the grove without fearing any 

 wounds but those of metaphor. The various 

 malignity that has been ascribed to European 

 serpents of old, is now utterly unknown ; 

 th 're are not above three or four kinds that 

 are dangerous, and their poison operates in all 

 in the same manner. A burning pain in the 

 part, easily removable by timely applications, 



NO. 61 & 62. 



is the worst effect that we experience from the 

 bite of the most venomous serpents of Europe. 

 The drowsy death, the starting of the blood 

 from every pore, the insatiable and burning 

 thirst, the melting down the solid mass of the 

 whole form into one heap of putrefaction, these 

 are horrors with which we are entirely unac- 

 quainted. 



But though we have thus reduced these dan- 

 gers, having been incapable of wholly re- 

 moving them, in other parts of the world they 

 still rage with all their ancient malignity. 

 Nature seems to have placed them ascentinels 

 to deter mankind from spreading too widely, 

 and from seeking new abodes till they have 

 thoroughly cultivated those at home. In the 

 warm countries that lie within the tropic, as 

 well as in the cold regions of the north, where 

 the inhabitants are'few, the serpents propagate 

 in equal proportion. But of all countries, 

 those regions have them in the greatest abun- 

 dance where the fields are unpeopled and fer- 

 tile, and where the climate supplies warmth 

 and humidity. All along the swarnpy banks 

 of the river Niger or Oroonoko, where the sun 

 is hot, the forests thick, and the men but few, 

 the serpents cling among the branches of the 

 trees in infinite numbers, and carry on an un- 

 ceasing war against all other animals in their 

 vicinity. Travellers have assured us, that 

 they have often seen large snakes twining 

 round the trunk of a tall tree, encompassing it 

 like a wreath, and thus rising and descending 

 at pleasure. In these countries, therefore, the 

 serpent is too formidable to become an object 

 of curiosity, for it excites much more violent 

 sensations. 



We are not, therefore, to reject as wholly 



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