88 POISONOUS SNAKES AND SNAKE POISONS. 



pointed out as children or servants of the Evil One, and 

 the latter himself appeared in this disguise whenever he 

 aimed at misleading a poor soul or at creating de- 

 struction in the world. 



Imagination, ever ready to soar beyond the reach of 

 reality, ascribed to them wings, feet and other limbs, 

 golden crowns on their heads and — as pointed out before 

 — the gift of speech and reason. Priests and physicians 

 were eager — here is a temptation to say, of course — to 

 support all this belief and to point out other super- 

 natural qualities, which were apt to increase the awe of 

 nations. What shall we say when we learn what 

 Egyptian priests teach : that whoever kills an asp is per- 

 secuted by its spirit with terrible cruelty ; the murderer 

 is found out even in the greatest crowd, is followed be- 

 yond mountains and rivers, until the thirst for revenge is 

 quenched ? And physicians of ancient times and of the 

 middle ages were not far behind the slyness of their 

 colleagues, the priests, when they ascribed powerful, in- 

 vigorative and restorative virtues to the broth of snakes, 

 to their fat, to their flesh. Lucrezia Borgia, that famous 

 Italian lady, whose wonderful beauty set so many hearts 

 on fire, is said to have washed her face with snake fat, 

 and Sir Kenelen Digby's beautiful wife loved to eat 

 capons, which were fattened by means of snakes. 



Nowadays advancing civilization has broken the 

 power of such superstition, nobody believes any more in 

 the "theriac" and others of those famous drugs made of 

 the heart and liver of snakes powdered, which were found 

 during the last and until the beginning of this century in 

 all apothecaries' stores, and believed to cure fever, small- 

 pox, apoplexy, paralysis, leprosy, consumption, blind- 

 ness, etc. Science has advanced rapidly, and before 

 its lifted torch of knowledge, enlightening a world of 

 darkness, superstition and unbelief, all these dismal 

 notions have taken their flight. 



