6o A NATURAL HISTORY 



In Atnerica, fays a celebrated Hiftorian, are found Afps with 

 Stings in the Tail, wherewith they ftrike and kill *. 



The Banks of Ni/us abound with ^j>j-, who have Sagacity- 

 enough to remove their Habitations to a place of Safety, feveral 

 days before that River overflows the Rifing- Grounds about it: 

 'Tis alfo faid the Crocodile and Tortoife recede with their Eggs, to 

 a Situation not accefTible by that mighty Flood ; a Flood that 

 makes the Land oi Egypt, a Region of Fertility, a Flood dreaded 

 by thefe Animals, and ador'd by the Egyptians, thofe Sons of 

 Contradidtion, who confecrated their Animals to the Gods, and 

 then worfliipped them, and upon Occafions kill'd thera. (Can 

 we behold fuch Inftindls in the Crocodile, &c. without acknow- 

 ledging the Divine "Wifdom that ordain'd 'em !) No Nation more 

 knowing, and more fottifh, e.g. Upon the Statue of Minerva^ 

 or the Goddefs Ifis, was this Infcription, viz. I was /he that was, 

 that am, andjhallbe, and that am every thing. Which being an 

 exa£t Interpretation of the Word 'Jehovah, and the fame Defini- 

 tion the Almighty appropriates to himfelf, I can't, fiys the Learned 

 yurieu, conceive, how a Nation that was arrived to fuch a high 

 Degree of Knowledge, (hould have worfliip'd Bullocks — as Gods. 



PZ/t/Tl^i^Ci? gives a flrange relation of them, viz. that in cafe 

 ofany extraordinary Calamity, as War, Plague, Famine, ih.'S' Egyp- 

 tian Priefts ufed to threaten the facred Bea/is moft horribly : If 

 they failed to help them, they whipt them till the Blood foUow'd j 

 and if the Calamity did ftill continue, they kill'd thofe facred 

 Beafts by way of Punishment -j-. The Reverfe of this is given us 

 in a Clan of Tartars, who, when expofed to any imminent Ca- 

 lamity, facrifice their Priefts, in order to intercede for them with 

 the Gods in the other World. 



I T has been faid, that the Afp, when exafperated, did, with 

 an eredted Head, caft out of its Mouth liquid Poifon ; but it 

 now appears, it darts it only by its Bite, or by Poifon taken 

 from it by Force, and poured into a Wound made by another ; 

 and both the Wounds fo made, foon terminate in an eajy plea- 

 J'ant Exit ; which is fuppofed to be the reafon why Queen Cleo- 

 patra chofe this kind of Death, that is, to poifon herlelf by an 

 Afpick Dofc. This reminds me of a certain Herb I have read of, 



in 



* Jonfonui Wfl. Nat. df Ser^entibus. p. i J. f Jurieu from ?lut. delf.& Ofir. 



