THE HYPODERMA TIKOSYRINGOPHOROI. 



199 



generally a more occult, magnetic, Blavatsky character. 

 They consist of small pebbles which have virtue to draw 

 the poison out of the wound, herbs which furnish decoc- 

 tions to be rubbed on the crown of the head, and wonderful 

 trees of the forest, with twigs of which if the patient be 

 well flogged the poison will depart from him. 



Poisonous snakes are a great mystery. Out of a class of 

 animals so harmless, so gentle, and so gracefully beautiful, 

 one here and one there, for no assignable reason, carries 

 with it an instrument exquisitely contrived for inflicting 

 almost instant death on creatures fifty times its own size. 

 And this provision is of no conceivable use to itself. It 

 cannot be necessary for self-defence, since for one that has 

 it many do without it ; nor can it be of much service in 

 overpowering prey which consists of nothing more for- 

 midable than rats and frogs. And those which bear this 

 poisoned dagger often belong to totally different genera, 

 and resemble each other far less than they resemble kinds 

 which are innocent, thus the more effectually blasting the 

 reputation of the whole family, and making us shun and 

 abhor a race which would be universal favourites, not only 

 on account of their grace and the brightness of their hues, 

 but for their intelligence, and the pleasantness of their dis- 



