Appendix. i 99 



compenfation, hath added as many falfehoods fo flrongly 

 aflerted, that they have occauoned more doubt than the 

 others have brought of light, certainty, and conviction. 



Lucan, inCato's march through the defert of the Cyren- 

 aicum in fearch of Juba, gives fuch a catalogue of thefe ve- 

 nomous animals, that we cannot wonder, as he infinuates, 

 that great part of the Roman army was deftroyed by them; 

 yet I will not fcruple to aver this is mere fable. I have tra- 

 velled acrofs the Cyrenaicum in all its directions, and never 

 faw but one fpecies of viper, which was the Ceraftes, or 

 Horned Viper, now before us. Neither did I ever fee any of 

 the make kind that could be mistaken for the viper. I ap- 

 prehend the fnake cannot fubfift without water, as the Ce- 

 raftes, from the places in which he is found, feems aiTured- 

 ly to do. Indeed thofe that Lucan fpeaks of muft have 

 been all vipers, becaufe the mention of every one of their 

 names is followed by the death of a man. 



There are no ferpents of any kind in Upper Abyffinia 

 that ever I faw, and no remarkable varieties even in Low, 

 excepting the large fnake called the Boa, which is often 

 above twenty feet in length, and as thick as an ordinary 

 man's thigh, He is a beafl of prey, feeds upon antelopes, 

 and the deer kind, which having no canine teeth, confe- 

 quently no poifon, he fwallows whole, after having broken 

 all its bones in pieces, and drawn it into a length to be more 

 eafily mastered. His chief reiidence is by the graiTy pools 

 of rivers that are ftagnant. Notwithftanding which, we 

 hear of the Monk Gregory telling M. Ludolf, that ferpents 

 were io frequent in Abyffinia, that every man carried with 

 him a ftick bent in a particular manner, for the more corn- 

 mod iouflv 



