THE CERASTES, OR HORNED VIPER. 107 



they display very great courage and address. Taking advantage of the reptile's sluggish 

 habits, they plant their bare feet upon its neck before it has quite made up its reptilian 

 mind to action, and, holding it firmly down, cut off its head and extract the poison at 

 their leisure. In order to make it adhesive to the arrow point, it is mixed with the 

 glutinous juice of the amaryllis. 



There seems to be no certain remedies for the bite of the Puff Adder. Ammonia 

 appears to be the least efficacious substance for that purpose, and the natives occa- 

 sionally attempt to heal the in jury by splitting a living fowl across the breast, and applying 

 the still palpitating halves to the wound. There is a kind of seed called the "gentle- 

 man bean," which is said to have a beneficial effect. If one of these beans be placed 

 on the recently inflicted wound, it adheres with great firmness, and is said to absorb the 

 poison from the system, and to fall off as soon as this object is achieved. The Bush- 

 men are in the habit of swallowing the poison whenever they kill a Puff Adder and do 

 not need its venomous store for their arrows, hoping thereby to render themselves 

 proof against its effects. When examined under the microscope, the poison resolves 

 itself into minute crystalline spiculae, not unlike those of Epsom salts, which must be 

 kept perfectly dry or they will soon vanish from the glass on which they are placed. 



The color of the Puff Adder is brown, chequered with dark brown and white, and 

 with a reddish band between the eyes. The under parts are paler than the upper. 



SEVERAL other deadly serpents of the same country are closely allied to the puff 

 adder. The first is the DAS ADDER or RIVER ]\CK-(Clothonasicornis) of the colonists, 

 remarkable for the long curved horn or spine upon the nose, formed by the peculiar 

 development of the scales over the nostril. This curious structure is only found in the 

 male. In color it is much darker than the puff adder, being black, marbled with a paler 

 hue, and decorated with sundry lozenge-shaped spots along the back. 



The BERG ADDER (Clotho Atropos) is another of these fearful reptiles. As its name 

 denotes, it is found more among the hills and stony ranges than on the plains, but is 

 not unfrequently found upon the flats, and will sometimes intrude into very awkward 

 positions, such as the floor of a hut, or even the bed upon which some wearied man is 

 about to cast himself. It is not quite so poisonous as the puff adder, though its looks 

 are quite as unprepossessing, and it never bites unless purposely irritated, or trodden 

 upon. 



It is an ugly, thick-bodied, slow crawling creature, with a suddenly tapering tail and 

 a most evil looking head. It is not a large reptile, its average length being about 

 eighteen inches. Its color is olive-gray, marbled on the sides, and decorated along the 

 back with four rows of dark squared spots. 



YET one more species of this genus deserves a passing notice. This is the HORNED 

 ADDER (Clotho cornutd), sometimes, but erroneously, called the Cerastes, a term that is 

 rightly applied to another Serpent shortly to be described. It sometimes goes by the 

 popular name of HORNSMAN. It derives its name of Horned Adder from the groups of 

 little thread-like horns that are seen on the head, one group appearing above each eye. 

 In some works of Natural History, it is called the PLUMED VIPER, in allusion to these 

 curious groups. It is not very graceful in form, being decidedly short, squat, and puffy 

 in shape, but is very prettily marked, its body being richly marbled with chestnut, 

 covered with a multitude of minute dots, and variegated with four rows of dark spots 

 along the back, two rows running on each side of the vertebral line. 



THE true CERASTES or HORNED VIPER is a native of Northern Africa, and divides 

 with the cobra of the same country the questionable honor of being the " worm c 

 Nile " to whose venomous tooth Cleopatra's death was due. 



The bite of this most ungainly looking Serpent is extremely dangerous, though, p 

 haps, not quite so deadly as that of the cobra, and the creature is therefore not qui 

 much dreaded as might be imagined. The Cerastes has a most curious appearance ow- 

 ing to a rather large horn-like scale which projects over each eye, and which, ace 



