CHAP. I.] THE MONGOOS. 147 



from being the case ; and next to its audacity, nothing 

 can be more surprising than the adroitness with which it 

 escapes the spring of the snake under a due sense of 

 danger, and the cunning with which it makes its ar- 

 rangements to leap upon the back and fasten its teeth in 

 the head of the cobra. It is this display of instinctive 

 ingenuity that Lucan 1 celebrates where he paints the 

 ichneumon diverting the attention of the asp, by the 

 motion of his-foushy tale, and then seizing it in the midst 

 of its confusion. 



" Aspidas ut Pharias cauda solertior hostis 

 Ludit, et iratas incerta provocat umbra : 

 Obliquusque caput vanas serpentis in auras 

 Effusfe toto comprendit guttura morsu 

 Letiferam citra saniem ; tune irrita pestis 

 Expriniitur, faucesque fluunt pereunte veneno." 



Pharsalia, lib. iv. v. 729. 



The mystery of the mongoos and its antidote has 

 been referred to the supposition that there may be some 

 peculiarity in its organisation which renders it proof 

 against the poison of the serpent. It remains for 

 future investigation to determine how far this conjec- 

 ture is founded in truth ; and whether in the blood of 

 the mongoos there exists any element or quality which 

 acts as a prophylactic. Such exceptional provisions 

 are not without precedent in the animal oeconomy : the 

 hornbill feeds with impunity on the deadly fruit of the 

 strychnos ; the milky juice of some species of euphorbia, 

 which is harmless to oxen, is invariably fatal to the 

 zebra ; and the tsetse fly, the pest of South Africa, 

 whose bite is mortal to the ox, the dog, and the horse, 

 is harmless to man and the untamed creatures of the 

 forest. 2 



The Singhalese distinguish one species of mongoos, 

 which they designate " Hotambeya" and which they 



1 The passage in Lucan is a versi- 

 fication of the same narrative related 

 by Pliny, lib. viii. ch. 35 ; and ^Elian, 

 lib. iii. ch. 22. 



2 Dr. LIVINGSTONE, Tour in S. 

 Africa, p. 80. Is it a fact that in 

 America, pi^s extirpate the rattle- 

 snakes with impunity ? 

 2 



