108 



THE CEEASTES, OR HOENED VIPER 



natives, is possessed of wonderful virtues. They fancy that one of the so-called horns 

 contains the supply of poison for the teeth, and that the other, if pounded and the powder 

 rubbed over the eyelids, will enable the fortunate experimenter to see all the wealth of the 

 earth a privilege which, according to the peculiar cast of the Oriental mind, is of nearly 

 as much value as the actual possession. The reader may remember a tale in the "Arabian 

 Nights" in which a similar story is narrated. 



The Cerastes has, according to Bruce, an awkward habit of crawling until it is along- 

 side of the creature whom it is about to attack, and then making a sidelong leap at its 

 victim. He relates an instance where he saw a Cerastes perform a certainly curious feat. 

 " I saw one of them at Cairo crawl up the side of a box in which there were many, and there 

 lie still as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought them to us came near him, 

 and though in a very disadvantageous position, sticking, as it were, perpendicularly to the 

 side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's 

 forefinger and thumb, so as to bring the blood." 



CERASTES, OK HOUIfKD VIPER Cenutet 



The man who was thus bitten happened to be one of the men who profess Serpent 

 charming, and avow themselves to be proof against the bite of any poisonous Snake. In 

 this instance no ill effects followed the hurt, although Bruce proved that the poison-fangs 

 had not been extracted, by making the reptile bite a pelican, which died in about thirteen 

 minutes. Some persons have suggested that in this, as well as in other similar instances, 

 the man was a clever juggler, who substituted a really venomous specimen for a Snake 

 whose poison-fangs had been extracted. But in any case it would be necessary to handle 

 the really poisonous reptile for the purpose of effecting the exchange, and, in my opinion, 

 the necessarily rough handling of the creature would be a matter of no small danger. 

 Bruce enters into this subject at some length, and records the result of a long series of 

 experiments in a form which, though very interesting, is now so familiar as to need 

 no quotation. 



That in many instances the poison-teeth of venomous Serpents have been extracted, in 

 order to allow the performer to play his tricks with them without harm, is very well 

 known, but the fact of acknowledged and detected imposture does not invalidate the reality 

 which is clumsily imitated by pretenders, any more than a forgery disproves the existence 

 of a genuine document. More will be said on this subject when we come to the different 

 species of cobra. 



