io8 



THE CERASTES, OR HORNED VIPER. 



to the 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 Ori- 

 ental mind, is of nearly as much value as the actual possession. The reader may re- 

 member 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, OR HORNED \lPER.-Censtes Hasselquistli. 



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 sim- 

 ilar instances, the man was a clever juggler, who substituted a really venomous speci- 

 men 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 ex- 

 change, 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. 



