ORDER OPHIDIA. 383 



Swedes, as we have already seen, is quite another species 

 from the one in question. 



Forskal informs us that when the haje is provoked, it 

 swells and extends its neck greatly, and then springs with a 

 single bound upon its enemy. This habit of rearing up when 

 it is approached, caused the ancient inhabitants of the countries 

 watered by the Nile, to believe that this serpent guarded the 

 fields which it inhabited. They made it in consequence the 

 emblem of the protecting divinity of the world. They sculp- 

 tured it on the two sides of a globe, on the portico of all 

 their temples. It is often exhibited by the jugglers at 

 Cairo, apparently metamorphosed into a rod or wand, which 

 is done by pressing its nape v/ith the finger, and thus 

 causing a sort of catalepsy. They take care, however, to 

 remove the fangs, which might cause very serious accidents. 



The ancients were zealous friends of the marvellous, and 

 at least as much inclined as ourselves to adopt as true every 

 thing which deviates from the ordinary course of things. 

 They have accordingly informed us that the poison of the 

 aspic, though inevitably mortal, produced no pain, and mere- 

 ly occasioned the progressive loss of strength, which was 

 followed by a quiet and lethargic sleep that " knew no wak- 

 ing."" Galen tells us, that in Alexandria, to shorten the pu™ 

 nishment of criminals condemned to death, they were bitten 

 in the breast by an aspic, of which he declares him- 

 self to have been an ocular witness, and that it was with 

 much difficulty the traces of the wound could be discovered. 

 Dioscorides, in mentioning that the bite of the aspic produced 

 immediate dimness of sight and epigastraglia, remarks that 

 it is unaccompanied by any local tumefaction, and they are 

 so fine, that they appear to be made with a very slender 

 needle. 



All that we know on this subject is, that the poison of the 

 haje is excessively violent, and far more deleterious, for ex- 



