37^ CLASS REPTILIA. 



finger and thumb, so as to bring the blood. The fellow 

 shewed no signs either of pain or fear, and we kept him with 

 us full four hours, without his applying any sort of remedy, 

 or his seeming inclined to do so. To make myself assured 

 that the animal was in its perfect state, I made the man hold 

 him by the neck, so as to force him to open his mouth, and 

 lacerate the thigh of a pelican, a bird I had tamed, as big 

 as a swan. The bird died in about thirteen minutes, though 

 it was apparently affected in about fifty seconds ; and we 

 cannot think this a fair trial, because a very few minutes 

 before it had bit the man, and so discharged a part of its 

 virus, and it was made to scratch the pelican by force, without 

 any irritation or action of its own." 



" A long dissertation," adds Mr. Bruce, " would remain 

 on the incantation of serpents. There is no doubt of its 

 reality, the scriptures are full of it ; all that have been in 

 Egypt have seen as many different instances as they chose. 

 Some has'e doubted that it was a trick, and that the animals 

 so handled, have been first trained, and then disarmed of 

 their power of hurting ; and fond of the discovery, they have 

 rested themselves upon it, without experiment, in the face 

 of all antiquity. But I will not hesitate to aver, that I have 

 seen at Cairo (and this may be seen daily without trouble 

 or expense), a man who came from above the catacombs, 

 where the pits of the mummy-birds are kept, who has taken 

 a cerastes with his naked hand, from a number of others, 

 lying at the bottom of the tub, has put it upon his bare 

 head, covered it with the common red cap he wears, then 

 taken it out, put it in his breast, and tied it about his neck 

 like a necklace ; after which it has been applied to a hen 

 and bit it, which has died in a few minutes, and to complete 

 the experiment, the man has taken it by the neck, and 

 beginning at the tail, has ate it as one would do a carrot, 

 or a stock of celery, without any seeming repugnance." 



