310 CLASS llEPTILIA. 



"Esse deos fecit timor, qua nempe remota 

 Templa ruent." 



The serpent became an object of veneration among several 

 of the rude and uncivilized hordes of Africa and America. 

 In the kingdom of Whidah, it had its priests, its temples, 

 and its victims. Every year in that superstitious country, 

 the finest girls, rich offerings, silken stuffs, jewels, delicate 

 meats, and even flocks, are consecrated to the reptile divi- 

 nities, which of course (as is the case with the observances 

 of superstition, under all its various forms throughout the 

 globe) turn an immense revenue into the coffers of the 

 priests, who are always sure to luxuriate on the credulity 

 and besotted ignorance of the people. Little, therefore, is it 

 to be wondered at, that they should invariably seek to pro- 

 long the reign of ignorance and credulity, and pertinaciously 

 oppose themselves, even in the most civilized countries, to all 

 that, by enlightening the human mind, must destroy the 

 sources of their wealth and the foundations of their power. 



All the serpents live on animal substances, and digest 

 slowly in consequence of the weakness of their membranous 

 stomach. Accordingly they eat but seldom, especially 

 during the season of cold ; one repast suffices them for many 

 weeks, and they never drink, for their thick and scaly skin 

 permits transpiration with great difficulty. 



In our European climates they pass the winter in a state 

 of lethargy. In the rigorous months, while overwhelmed 

 in this death-like sleep, they remain concealed in holes in 

 the earth, coiled up, and many of them entwined together, 

 until they are awakened by the genial temperature of the 

 returning spring, and restored to perfect vitality by the re- 

 animating influence of the sun. 



At this time they change their epidermis, for these animals 

 tmdergo a moulting every year, from the effect of which 

 the most external of their teguments dries up, splits, detaches 



