ORDER OPHIDIA. 37S 



"We know from history, that when any country has 

 been remarkably infested with serpents, the people have 

 been screened by this secret. The Psylli and Marmarides 

 of old undoubtedly were defended in this manner, 



' Ad quorum cantus mites jacuere cerastes.' 



" To leave ancient history, I can myself avouch that all the 

 black people in the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Funge or 

 Nuba, are perfectly armed against the bite of either scorpion 

 or viper. They take the cerastes in their hands at all times, 

 put them in their bosoms, and throw them at one another, as 

 children do apples or balls, without having irritated them 

 by this usage, so much as to bite. The Arabs have not 

 this secret naturally, but from their infancy they ac- 

 quire an exemption from the mortal consequences of the 

 bite of these animals, by chewing a certain root, and wash- 

 ing themselves (it is not anointing) with an infusion of 

 certain plants in water. One day, when I was sitting with 

 the brother of Shekh Adelan, prime minister of Sennaar, a 

 slave of his brought a cerastes, which he had just taken out 

 of a hole, and was using with every sort of familiarity. I 

 told him my suspicion that the teeth had been drawn, but he 

 affirmed that they were not, as did his master Kitton, w^ho 

 took it from him, wound it round his arm, and, at my desire, 

 ordered the servant to carry it home with me. I took a 

 ■chicken by the neck, and made it flutter before him ; his 

 seeming indifi'erence left him, and he bit it with great signs 

 of anger — the chicken died immediately. I say his seeming 

 indifference ; for I constantly observed, that however lively 

 the viper was before, yet upon being seized by any of these 

 barbarians, he seemed as if taken with sickness and feeble- 

 ness, frequently shut his eyes, and never turned his mouth 

 towards the arm of the person who held him. I asked Kit- 

 ton how they came to be exempted from this mischief .'* He 

 said they were born so, and so said the grave and respectable 



