724 



A HISTORY OF 



fabulous, the accounts left us by the ancients 

 of tiie terrible devastations committed by a 

 single serpent. It is probable, in early times, 

 when tin- arts were little known, and mankind 

 were but thinly scattered over the earth, that 

 serpents, continuing undisturbed possessors of 

 the forest, grew to an amazing magnitude ; 

 and every other tribe of animals fell before 

 them. It then might have happened, that 

 serpents reigned the tyrants of a district for 

 centuries together. To animals of this kind, 

 .grown by ti ne and rapacity to a hundred or 

 a hundred and fifty feet in length, the lion, the 

 tiger, an I even the elephant itself, were but 

 feeble opponents. The dreadful monster 

 spread desolation round him ; every creature 

 that had life was devoured, or fled to a dis- 

 tance. That horrible fcetor, which even the 

 commonest and the most harmless snakes are 

 still found to diffuse, might, in these larger 

 ones, become too powerful for any living be- 

 ing to withstand ; and while they preyed with- 

 out distinction, they might thus also have 

 poisoned the atmosphere around them. In 

 this manner, having for ages lived in the hid- 

 den and unpeopled forest, and finding, as their 

 appetites were more powerful, the quantity of 

 their prey decreasing, it is possible they might 

 venture boldly from their retreats, into the 

 more cultivated parts of the country, and carry 

 consternation among mankind, as they had 

 before desolation among the lower ranks of 

 nature. We have many histories of antiquity, 

 prev nting us such a picture ; and exhibiting 

 a whole nation sinking under the ravages of a 

 single serpent. At that time man had not 

 learned the art of uniting the efforts of many, 

 to effect one great purpose. Opposing multi- 

 tudes only added new victims to the general 

 calamity, and increased mutual embarrassment 

 and terror. The animal was therefore to be 

 singly opposed by him who had the greatest 

 strength, the best armour, .and the most un- 

 daunted courage. In such an encounter hun- 

 dreds must have fallen ; till one, more lucky 

 than the rest, by a fortunate blow, or by 

 taking ;he monster in its torpid interval, and 

 surcharged with spoil, might kill, and thus rid 

 hi 1 * country of the destroyer. Such was the 

 original occupation of heroes : and those who 

 first obtained that name, from their destroying 

 the ravagers of the earth, gained it much more 

 deservedly than their successors, who ac- 



quired their reputation only for their skill 

 in destroying each other. But as \\e de- 

 scend into more enlightened antiquity, we find 

 these animals less formidable, as being attack- 

 ed in a more successful manner. We are told> 

 that while Regulus led his army along the 

 banks of the river Bagrada, in Africa, an 

 enormous serpent disputed his passage over. 

 We are assured by Pliny, who says that he 

 himself saw the skin, that it was a hundred 

 and twenty feet long, and that it had destroy- 

 ed many of the army. At last, however, the 

 battering engines were brought out against it; 

 and these assailing it at a distance, it was soon 

 destroyed. Its spoils were carried to Rome, 

 and the general was decreed an ovation for 

 his success. There are, perhaps, few facts 

 better ascertained in history than this : an 

 ovation was a remarkable honour; and was 

 given only for some signal exploit, that did 

 not deserve a triumph : no historian would 

 offer to invent that part of the story at least, 

 without being subject to the most shameful 

 detection. The skin was kept for several 

 years after in the Capitol ; and Pliny says, he 

 saw it there : now, though Pliny was a cre- 

 dulous writer, he was by no means a false 

 one ; and whatever he says he has seen, we 

 may very safely rely on. At present, indeed, 

 such ravages from serpents are scarcely seen 

 in any part of the world ; not but that in 

 Africa and America, some of them are power- 

 ful enough to brave the assaults of men to this 

 day. 



But happily for us, we are placed at such a 

 distance as to take a view of this tribe, with- 

 out fearing for our safety ; we can survey their 

 impotent malignity with the same delight 

 with which the poet describes the terrors of a, 

 dead monster, 



Nequeant expleri corda tuendo 

 Terribiles oculos villosaque setis pectore. 



To us their slender form, their undulating 

 motion, their vivid colouring, their horrid 

 stench, their forky tongue, and their envenom- 

 ed fangs, are totally harmless ; and in this 

 country their uses even serve to counter- 

 balance the mischief they sometimes occa- 

 sion. 



If we t;;ke a survey of serpents in general, 

 they have marks by which they are distia- 



