,4o ANATURALHISTORY 



The Circulator es, or Dealers in Serpents, devour'd at their 

 Tables even their Heads, and pour'd the Gall into their Cups 

 ,when they drank, laughing at their Neighbours Timidity^ who 

 transform their Imaginations into Bug-bears. 



The Inhabitants of Mount Athos^ between Macedonia and 

 ■Thracia, are called Macrobii^ that is Long-livers^ or long-liv'd ; 

 and their Longevity is attributed to their feeding on Viper's Flefh, 

 •which is a moll elegant Nutritive *. 



The Ethiopians are number'd among thofe who feed upon 

 Serpents, as one valuable Branch of their Suftenance. 



I N the Kingdom of Cofigo in Africa, the Negroes road the Ad- 

 ders, and not only greedily feed upon them, but efteem them as 

 a moil delicious Food -j*. 



ST, H ELE N A, one of the African Iflands, abounds with Ser- 

 pents which the Dutch eat as a greater Dainty than Eels :|:.We read 

 of a Man who liv'd at Colonia Agrippina in Germany, that fed up- 

 on Spiders, as the moil delicate Difh. A^". B. This Cologne is 



called Agrippifja from Agrippina the Mother of Nero (who poi- 

 fon'd Claudius her own Husband, to make Nero her Son Emperor) 

 and would have the Town honoured with a Roman Colony, as 

 being the Place of her Birth ||. 



In Cuia, an American LQand, they were peiler'd with many 

 forts of Serpents, not fo much from the ill Condition of the Soil, 

 as by an old fuperftitious Whim of the Savages, who in former 

 Times were not fuflered to kill them, (this being a royal game, 

 and a nice Diili rei'erved for the Higher Powers) and were not able 

 afierwards to deilroy them, when it would have been fuiFered "**. 



T H E Kalmuck Tartars feed very much upon Snakes, Adders 

 and Foxes- — —The Syrians ,eat Crocodiles, which live on the Land 

 .only. 



MITHRIDATE, formerly one of the Capital Medicines in 

 the Shops, has the Name from the Inventor, viz. Mithridates 

 King of Pontus, who being overcome by Pompey, would have 

 poilon'd himlelf; but no Poifon would work upon him, having 

 accullom'd himfelf to eat Poifon i thus defcribed in an old Dog- 

 grel Rhyme, viz. 



King 



^ * C. Gefn.r, p. 76. t Purchas Pilgrim, Part ii. 1. 7. + Jfl. Afrk. p. y^l. 

 J] Tadm's Aanais, Vol. i.B. iv, ** Heylins Cofmography, B. iv. p. 151. 



