THE SNAKE STONES: 321 



dfjat this fnake had no fang-teeth or poifon-bag, and of courfe wa?- 

 harmlefs: of the three poifonoas kinds, the bite of one I have afcertain« 

 cd is never fatal even to fma 11 animals, and much lefs to man. The 

 ferptnt alluded to, is that called here the carawilla. Its poifon a6ls in 

 a peculiar manner, occafioning much fweilmg and pain in the par£ 

 bitten. The fweliing gradually abates. Difagreeable fuppurating uU 

 cers are a frequent confequence ; but the recovery is fpontaneous and 

 certain. I may relate an inftance in which a fdake-done gained much 

 credit, applied to the bite of a ferpent of this kind. The ftory was 

 thus told me by a fpe^lalor, A native fervant mt^s bitten in the leg bj 

 a ferpent. A fnake charmer was immediately fent for. He came 

 fpeedily, yet before he arrived, the: leg and thigh v/ere much fwolieoo 

 The charmer applied his fnake (lonCj which was a long time continued^ 

 Irr about three hours, the pain, which at firll was excruciating, had near- 

 ly ceafed, and the fwelling in about three hours more had fubfided, 

 and the man, who was travelling on foot, was able to purfue his jour° 

 ney, which I have no doubt he would have been able to have done 

 juft as foon, if no fione had been applied. 



The bite of the other two poifonous fnakcs, the colra di capello 

 (coluber najaj, and the polonga (a fpecies of coluber), is thought hf 

 mod of the natives to be abfolutely mortal, which is far from the 

 truth. The effe6l of the bite depends on a variety of circumflances 

 that people in general leave out of confideration. 1 have made a num» 

 ber of experiments with both kinds, and can fpeak from ray own ex- 

 perience. The poifon of thefe fnakes is foon exhaufted, when of 

 courfe their bite is innocent. And though the poifon be not exhaufted in 

 the majority of cafes of the Lite of the cobra di capello^ and in many of 

 t\it polonga, it i^ not fufficiently virulent to caufe the death of any ani- 

 mal, excepting fuch as are fmall and weako 



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