HORNED SNAKE. 583 



had been drawn, but he assured me they were not, as did his master 

 Kitton, who took it from him, wound it round his arm, and at my 

 desire ordered the servant to carry it home with me. I took a 

 chicken by the neck, and made it flutter before him ; his seeming 

 indifference left him, and he bit it with great signs of anger; the 

 chicken almost died immediately*; I say his seeming indifference, 

 for I constantly observed, that, however lively the viper was before, 

 yet upon being seized by any of these barbarians, heseemed as if 

 taken with sickness, and feebleness, frequently shut his eyes, and 

 never turned his mouth towards the arm of the person that held him. 

 I asked Kitton how they came to be exempted from this mischief ? 

 He said they were born so, and so said Che grave and respectable 

 men among them. Many of the lighter and lower sort talked of 

 enchantments by words and by writing, but they all knew how to 

 prepare any person by medicines, which were decoctions of herbs 

 and roots. I have seen many thus armed for a season, do pretty 

 much the same feats as those who possessed the exemption naturally; 

 the drugs were given me, and I several times armed myself, as I 

 thought, resolved to try the experiment ; but my heart always 

 failed me, when I came to the trial ; because among these wretched 

 people it was a pretence they might very probably have sheltered 

 themselves under, that I was a Christian, and that therefore it had 

 no effect upon me. I have still remaining by me a small quantity 

 of this root, but never had an opportunity of trying the expe-ri. 

 ment." 



The cerastes often makes its appearance among the numerous 

 hieroglyphic figures on the various remains of Egyptian antiquity ; 

 and is particularly conspicuous on a pair of large sculptured stones 

 brought from Alexandria, and preserved in the British Museum, 

 and which, probably, made a part of the cornice of some magnifi- 

 cent temple. 



This animal, like some other poisonous serpents, is supposed to 

 be viviparous. 



* Might not this have happened from the tooth piercing the spinal marrow ; 

 and would not the same effect have happened, had the chicken been pierced 

 with a pin? 



2p4 



