NAJA ELAPS CUPROCEPHALUS. 63 
soon partakes of the same movement; vertigo supervenes; the 
blood starts from the nostrils, and the animal falls to the 
ground ; violent contractions of the muscles follow ; the body 
begins to swell, and shortly death ensues. 
Some people entertain the belief that this serpent is endowed 
with a power of enchantment, and this is not without a cer- 
tain foundation, in the fact that all serpents are highly suseep- 
tible to magnetism and magnetic influences. In proof of this 
there are “Curers” who will calm and quiet the most uncon- 
trollable fury of the most venomous snakes, by making a few 
> with both hands, when the reptile approaches, coils 
himself up into a small coil, the head low, mouth closed, and 
thus remains quict immediately under the “Curer’s” hands. 
One who has seen this must acknowledge that. some like in- 
fluence gave birth to the tales and legends of enchantment 
that are transmitted to us from former ages. One may safely 
venture to predict at no very distant day in the future, the appli- 
cation of magnetism for the cure of certain classes of diseases 
in conformity to the law of “similars.”” The instance recorded 
in Good’s “ Book of Nature,” of the bird enticed into the 
jaws of the snake by its powers of fascination, has been re- 
peated to me by different Curers ; men who are unacquainted 
with each other, who hardly know how to read a little even in 
Spanish, much less in English, and whose sole knowledge of 
the habits of snakes and reptiles is derived from hours, months, 
and years of study of their peculiarities from nature itself, 
roaming about in the woods and forests. 
Tt would exact no great effort to fill a volume with these 
“leanings” treasured up in memory, but as I only propose 
to enumerate well-authenticated facts, and only such matters 
as have come under my immediate observation and experi- 
“ passes ’ 
ence, I forbear. 
The species V. Elaps Cuprocephalus derives its name from 
