388 Reptiles. 



" adder blue."* The passage appertains too closely to the present 

 paper to be omitted. It occurs where Timon, digging for a single 

 root to appease his hunger, thus addresses the earth. 



" Common mother thou, 



Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast 

 Teems and feeds all ; whose selfsame mettle 

 Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puft, 

 Engenders the black toad and adder blue, 

 The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm, 

 With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven, 

 Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine.'' 



Act iv. Scene iii. 



It would be out of place in the present paper to enter into the 

 practice of serpent charming, as still prevalent in India, else would 

 " the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the 

 voice of the charmer's charming never so wisely," supply a subject of 

 curious and interesting enquiry. That these animals, as well as some 

 others, are attracted by musical sounds, is a well-known fact, and 

 whenever such a result does not appear, it is commonly supposed that 

 the reptile is refusing to listen, — that it is wilfully excluding those 

 sounds which if heard would produce their customary effect. To this 

 popular opinion, imbibed by the mind of Shakspeare, and there 

 transmuted into poetry and wisdom, we owe the remark — 

 " For pleasure and revenge 



Have ears more deaf than adders' to the voice 

 Of any true decision." 



Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Scene ii. 



And to the same source we may trace the language employed by 

 Queen Margaret in her appeal to Henry. 



" What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf? 

 Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen." 



2nd part K. Henry VI. Act iii. Scene ii. 



To any naturalist who is willing to admit, " I love a ballad but 

 even too well," and who delights to connect the objects of his re- 

 searches with the poetry and legends of other times, an added charm 

 will be thrown around the present subject by one of those spirit-stir- 

 ring old ballads enshrined in Percy's ' Reliques of Ancient English 

 Poetry.' King Arthur, being about to negotiate for an armistice, gave 

 orders that his host should not unsheath a weapon " unless a sword 



* A variety of the British viper is described in the ' Linnean Transactions,' under 

 the name of Coluber caeruleus or blue-bellied viper. 



