THE COMMON SCORPION. 499 



We are informed that when a Scorpion is sur- 

 rounded by burning coals or wood, so as not to be 

 able to escape their effects, it will strike its sting into 

 its own body and destroy itself: but this seems to be 

 merely a legend undeserving of belief. 



M. Navarette says that, when he was in the Phi- 

 lippine islands, he was instructed in an infallible pre- 

 servative against the sting of the Scorpions. The 

 reader will smile when he is told that this was, 

 when he went to bed, simply to make a commemo- 

 ration of St. George. " I continued," says he, " this 

 devotion many years j and, God be praised, the saint 

 always delivered me, both there and in other coun- 

 tries, from those and such like insects." He says, 

 however, afterward, that he used another preventa- 

 tive, that of rubbing his bed all round with garlic, 

 to keep them at a distance. The same credulity 

 that dictated to him the commemoration of St. 

 George taught him that the moisture from a hen's 

 mouth was an excellent remedy *. 



This creature, which is but too common in all hot 

 countries, is extremely bold and watchful. When- 

 ever any thing approaches, it seldom exhibits signs 

 of fear, but, with its tail erect, and sting in readi- 

 ness, as if fully confident of the force of its poison, it 

 waits an attack with courage and intrepidity, and 

 seldom desists till either it is killed or its enemy is 

 put to flight. 



•• Navarette's Voyage to China, in Churchill's Coll. i. il$. 



Kk 2 



