682 AMPHIB1ALA 



the incantation of serpents. There is no doubt of its reality : the 

 scriptures are full of it ; all that have been in Egypt have seen as 

 many different instances as they chose. Some have, doubted that 

 it was a trick, and that the animals so handled, had been first 

 trained, and then disarmed of their power of hurting ; and, fond 

 of the discovery, they have rested themselves upon it, without ex- 

 periment, in the face of all antiquity. But I will not hesitate to 

 aver, that I have seen at Cairo (and this may be seen daily, with- 

 out trouble or expence), a man who came from above the cata- 

 combs, where the pits of the mummy birds are kept, who has taken 

 a cerastes with his naked hand, from a number of others lying at 

 the bottom of the tub, has put it upon his bare head, covered it 

 with the common red cap he wears, then taken it out, put it in his 

 breast, and tied it about his neck like a necklace; after which it 

 has been applied to a hen, and bit it, which has died in a few mi- 

 nutes ; and, to complete the experiment, the man has taken it by 

 the neck, and, beginning at the tail, has ate it, as one would do a 

 carrot or a stock of celery, without any seeming repugnance. 



" We know from history, that where any country has been re- 

 markably infested with serpents, there the people have been 

 screened by this secret. The Psylli andMarmarides of old were 

 defended in this manner. 



Ad quorum can tus mites jacuere Ccrastas*. 



Sil. JtaU lib. 3. 



4C To leave ancient history, I can myself avouch, that all the 

 black people in the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Funge 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 at 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 in- 

 fancy they acquire an exemption from the mortal consequences 

 attending the bite of these animals, by chewing a certain root, and 

 washing themselves (it is not anointing) with an infusion of certain 

 plants in water. One day, when I was sitting with the brother of 

 Shekh Adelan, prime minister of Sennaar, a slave of his brought a 

 cerastes, which he had just taken out of a hole, and was using with 

 every sort of familiarity. I told him my suspicion that the teeth 



* Tame at whose spell the cbarm'd cerastes lay. 



