THE SERPENT. 



409 



than this : an ovation was a remarkable ' 

 honour; and was given only for some signal 

 exploit that did not deserve a triumph : no his- 

 torian 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 credulous 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 Af- 

 rica and America some of them are powerful 

 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. 



Neqncnnt expleri corda tuendo 

 Terribiles oeulos villooaijue setis pectora. 



To us their slender form, their undulating 

 motion, their vivid colouring, their horrid 

 stench, their forky tongue, and their enven- 

 omed fangs, are totally harmless ; and in this 

 country their uses even serve to counterbalance 

 the mischief they sometimes occasion. 



If we take a survey of serpents in general, 

 they have marks by which they are distin- 

 guished from all the rest of animated nature. 

 They have the length and the suppleness of 

 the eel, but want fins to swim with: they 

 have the scaly covering and pointed tail of the 

 lizard, but they want legs to walk with ; they 

 have the crawling motion of the worm, but, 

 unlike that animal, they have lungs to breathe 

 with : like all tlie reptile kind, they are re- 

 sentful when offended ; and nature has sup- 

 plied them with terrible arms to revenge every 

 injury. 



Though they are possessed of very different 

 degrees of malignity, yet they are all formid- 

 able to man, and have a strong similitude of 

 form to each other ; and it will be proper to 

 mark the general character before we descend 

 to particulars. With respect to their confor- 

 mation, all serpents have a very wide mouth, 

 in proportion to the size of the head ; and, what 

 is very extraordinary, they can gape and swal- 

 low the head of another animal which is three 

 times as big as their own. I have seen a toad 

 laken out of the belly of a snake, at lord Spen- 

 cer's, near London, the body of which was 

 thrice the diameter of the animal that swal- 

 lowed it. However, it is no way surprising 

 that the skin of the snake should stretch to re- 

 ceive so large a morsel : the wonder seems 

 how the jaws could take it in. To explain 



this, it must be observed that the jaws of this 

 animal do not open as ours, in the manner of 

 a pair of hinges, where bones are applied to 

 bones, and play upon one another; on the con- 

 trary, the serpent's jaws areTheld together at 

 the roots by a stretching muscular skin ; by 

 which means they open as widely as the ani- 

 mal chooses to stretch them, and admit of a 

 prey much thicker than the snake's own body. 

 The throat, like stretching leather, dilates to 

 admit the morsel ; the stomach receives it in 

 part ; and the rest remains in the gullet, till 

 putrefaction and the juices of the serpent's 

 body unite to dissolve it. 



As to the teeth, I will talk more of them 

 when I come to treat of the viper's poison ; it 

 will be sufficient here to observe, that some 

 serpents have fangs, or canine teeth, and others 

 are without them. The teeth in all are crooked 

 and hollow ; and, by a peculiar contrivance, 

 are capable of being erected or depressed at 

 pleasure. 



The eyes of all serpents are small, if com- 

 pared to the length of the body ; and though 

 differently coloured in different kinds, yet the 

 appearance of all is malign and heavy; and, 

 from their known qualities, they strike the 

 imagination with the idea of a creature medi- 

 tating mischief. In some, the upper eye-lid 

 is wanting, and the serpent winks only witL 

 that below ; in others, the animal has a nicti- 

 tating membrane or skin, resembling that 

 which is found in birds, which keeps the eye 

 clean, and preserves the sight. The substance 

 of the eye in all is hard and horny ; the crys- 

 talline humour occupying a great part of the 

 globe. 



The holes for hearing are very visible in all : 

 but there is no conduits for smelling ; though 

 it is probable that some of them enjoy that 

 sense in tolerable perfection. 



The tongue in all these animals is long and 

 forky. It is composed of two long fleshy sub. 

 stances, which terminate in sharp points, and 

 are very pliable. At the root it is connected 

 very strongly to the neck by two tendons, that 

 give it a variety of play. Some of the viper 

 kind have tongues a fifth part of the length of 

 their bodies ; they are continually darting 

 them out, but they are entirely harmless, and 

 only terrify those who are ignorant of the real 

 situation of their poison. 



If from the jaws we go on to the gullet, we 

 shall find it very wide for the animal's size, 

 and capable of being distended to a great de- 

 gree ; at the bottom of this lies the stomach, 

 which is not so capacious, and receives only a 

 part of the prey, while the rest continues in 

 the gullet for digestion. When the substance 

 in the stomach is dissolved into chyle, it passes 

 into the intestines, and from thence goes to 

 nourishment, or to be excluded by the vent. 

 Si 



