74 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



pass with the common people for the tongues and 

 eyes of serpents, though assuredly there is no 

 great resemblance between them : these are, in 

 their apprehension, authentic and irresistible evi- 

 dence of the miraculous service which St. Paul 

 rendered to their island, by destroying all the 

 serpents. But this is not the only instance to 

 prove that, under the hand of ignorance, the 

 history of nature has become that of superstition. 



