l8o NETHER LOCHABER. 



a sort of Gordian knot on a patoh of green moss close by the 

 fountain's brink. The day was hot and dry, and they had pro- 

 bably come there to drink and bathe ; but we were very thirsty, 

 having just smoked a pipe on the top of the hill, and there being 

 no appearance of water anywhere else for miles around, and know- 

 ing, besides, that there could be really no danger, even if the 

 vipers had been ten times larger and more venomous than they 

 were, we drank a long draught of the pure sweet water, and then 

 proceeded with the stick in our hand to attack the enemy, and 

 soon had the satisfaction of knocking them into wriggling, writhing 

 bits, and crushing their heads under our heel. Our assault was so 

 sudden and unexpected that they had no time to show fight ; 

 otherwise an adder, when his blood is up and thoroughly on his 

 guard, is an ugly customer to attack with no better weapon than a 

 walking-stick, and nothing can be imagined more deadly, wicked- 

 looking, and savage than such an animal, as with erected crest and 

 flashing eye he steadies himself in act to strike. It is curious that 

 the poison of these reptiles, though certain death if commingled 

 in sufficient quantity with the blood through an abrasion or 

 wound, is perfectly innocuous if taken into the stomach — a fact, 

 by the way, that has been known from very early times. On 

 taking our drink, for instance, from yonder viper-guai-ded fountain, 

 we recollected that Lucan had something on a somewhat similar 

 circumstance in his Pharsalia. Describing Cato and his soldiers 

 coming to a fountain of water in the desert, and how horrified they 

 were to find innumerable serpents of the deadliest kind — asps and 

 dipsades — disporting themselves in and around the pool, he has 

 the following fine passage, the finest indeed in the poem, which 

 we took care to turn up when we reached home : — 



'* Jam spissior ignis, 

 Et plaga, quam nullam superi mortalibus ultra, 

 A medio fecere die caloatur, et uuda 



