CH. xn. MAEOCCO REPTILES. 319 



and rather terrible. In the course of conversation over the 

 evening cigar it came out that he had never seen a scor- 

 pion; whereupon, by order from Mr. Carstensen, a corner 

 of the carpet within the tent was turned up, and a scor- 

 pion-hole speedily found. When the ugly creature was 

 dug out of his hole and produced to the company, the 

 genuine consternation and disgust of our young friend 

 were irresistibly ludicrous. We afterwards heard that he 

 passed a miserable night, in constant terror of encountering 

 the enemy, and on the next day returned to the paternal 

 home, whence he will not again be easily lured. 



The natives show no especial dislike for reptiles, ex- 

 cepting poisonous snakes, which, in spite of reports to the 

 contrary, must be rare. We heard so much of them, and es- 

 pecially of the Cerastes {El Efah of the Moors) — popularly 

 called the ' two minutes' snake,' because a person bitten is 

 supposed to survive so long — that at first we always carried 

 about us a bottle of liquid ammonia, as the best, though 

 very uncertain, antidote. But when we failed to see a 

 single specimen, and were assured that they are found only 

 on the coast, we gradually laid all precautions aside, and 

 thought no more of serpents than we should have done in 

 Europe. 



About this time we discovered that one of our escort 

 had a decided taste for reptiles, which we might have 

 turned to account, if we had known of it, by getting him 

 to collect specimens. He was a tall, lanky man, with a 

 prominent nose, whom we had nicknamed, from his pecu- 

 liar personal appearance, 'Don Quixote,' but whose real 

 name was Sherrif Mouley Mohammed. He had captured 

 several toads and lizards, which he carried about with him, 

 and showed another trait of originality in being the only 

 one of our native followers who willingly drank coffee. 



The morning of June 2 was brilliantly fine, and the 

 sun remained unclouded throughout the day, although the 

 heat was at no time oppressive. At 9.30 a.m. we started 

 for the ascent of the Djebel Hadid, directing our course to- 



