APPENDIX. 203 



his fide towards the perfon, and his head averted, till jud- 

 ging his diftance, he turns round, fprings upon him, and 

 fattens upon the part next to him ; for it is not true what 

 is faid, that the Ceraftes does not leap or fpring. I faw one 

 of them at Cairo, in the houfe of Julian and Rofa, crawl 

 up the fide of a box, in which there were many, and there 

 lye ftill as if hiding himfelf, till one of the people who 

 brought them to us came near him, and though in a very 

 difadvantageous pofture, flicking as it were perpendicular to 

 the fide of the box, he leaped near the diftance of three feet, 

 and fattened between the man's forefinger and thumb, fo as 

 to bring, the blood. The fellow fhewed no figns of either 

 pain or fear, and we kept him with us full four hours, with- 

 out his applying any fort of remedy, or his feeming inclin- 

 ed to do fo. 



To make myfelf allured that the animal was in its perfect 

 ftate, I made the man hold him by the neck fo as to force 

 him to open his mouth, and lacerate the thigh of a pelican, 

 a bird I had tamed, as big as a fwan. The bird died in about 

 13 minutes, though it was apparently affected in 50 feconds ; 

 and we cannot think this was a fair trial, becaufe a very 

 few minutes before, it had bit the man, and fo difcharged 

 part of its virus, and it was made to fcratch the pelican by 

 force, without any irritation or action of its own. 



The Ceraftes inhabits the greateft part of the eaftern con- 

 tinent, efpecially the defert fandy parts of it. It abounds in 

 Syria, in the three Arabias, and in Africa. I never faw fo 

 many of them as in the Cyrenaicum, where the Jerboa is 

 frequent in proportion. He is a great lover of heat ; for tho* 



Vol. V. E e the 



