o74 CLASS REPTILIA. 



men among them. Many of the lighter and lower sort talked 

 of enchantments, by words and by writing, but they all knew 

 how to prepare any person by medicines, which were decoc- 

 tions of herbs and roots. I have seen many thus armed, for 

 a season, do pretty much the same feats as those who possess- 

 ed the exemption naturally ; the drugs were given me, and 

 I several times armed myself, as I thought, resolved to try 

 the experiment, but my heart always failed me when I came 

 to the trial, because among these wretched people it was a 

 pretence they might very probably have sheltered themselves 

 under that I was a Christian, and that therefore it had no 

 effect upon me. I have still remaining by me a small quan- 

 tity of this root, but never had an opportunity of trying the 

 experiment." 



On this account the following remarks are made by M. 

 Cloquet. 



" All the absurdities which have been formerly put forth, 

 on the subject of the psylli of Africa, and the mar si of Italy, 

 Avho possessed the secret of handling venomous serpents, and 

 escaping the accidents produced by their bite, have been 

 repeated in modern times respecting many venomous ophi- 

 dians, and by Bruce in particular, in the case of the cerastes. 

 At the present day, we positively know what to believe in 

 relation to this magic faculty, and no one is ignorant that it 

 is founded on nothing but the dexterity with which mounte- 

 banks extract the inoculating fangs, or empty the poison 

 bags, by making the animal repeatedly bite a spongy body. 

 It is therefore impossible to attach any credit to the differ- 

 ent facts reported by the traveller whom we have just men- 

 tioned, who says, among other matters, that he saw one 

 at Cairo, which had bitten, without any evil consequence, the 

 hand of a man so as to draw blood, and afterwards destroyed 

 a pelican,"" &c. &c. 



Now, we are very ready to give up Bruce's statement 



