ON SYMPATHY AND FASCINATION. 



239 



their attack, and suffer no injury from its venom after they have satisfied their 

 hunger. In both these cases, the charm or power of protection appears to 

 be natural, as in the Nuba and Funge tribes of Africa. In the serpent-hawk 

 or guaco, liowevor, just noticed, which derives its chief food from poisonous 

 snakes, and in the tantahis or ibis of Egypt, the numenius Ibis of Cuvier, 

 which equally attacks and devours them, the charm or protection seems to be 

 artificial, and to depend upon the virtue of the plant to which they have re- 

 course for this purpose ; for I have already observed that the serpent-hawk 

 uniformly applies to the ophiorrhiza before he commences the battle ; while the 

 ibis, though he appears to open the fight without any such preparation, retires 

 from the field, if wounded, to the plant which he knows will serve as an antidote, 

 and immediately renews and continues it till he has vanquished his enemy. 



The fact, then, being incontrovertible, we have next to inquire into the 

 secret and invisible cause of so very salutiferous and extraordinary an effect ; 

 or rather, into the nature of the medium by which so extraordinary and effect 

 is produced. That there is in all these cases a peculiar emanation issuing 

 from the body of the protected, there is little doubt. 



But we have no reason for ascribing it to electricity or Voltaism, since the 

 persons thus peculiarly endowed, whether by art or nature, whether tempo- 

 rarily or permanently, exhibit no proofs of an electric power upon any other 

 animal, or of the same power, whatever it may be, in any other way. It 

 appears, nevertheless, to be a power that operates in a manner somewhat 

 similar to, but in some respects more forcible and more general, than that of 

 electricity : I mean by exhausting equally and altogether the muscular and 

 sensorial energy of the serpent or scorpion to which it is applied ; for, in 

 regard to the serpent kinds, we are told distinctly, as well in America as in 

 Africa, that they remain totally torpid and inactive beneath its influence ; 

 scarcely ever being able to muster up force enough to attempt any resistance, 

 even when eaten up alive, as Bruce assures us he has seen them, from tail to head, 

 like a carrot ;* a fact which, doubtless, could never occur in animals so active 

 and courageous, unless they were secretly deprived of all power of resistance. 



We are not left, however, to mere conjecture upon this subject ; for 

 Mr. Bruce most positively affirms, that they constantly sicken the moment 

 they are laid hold of, and that they are sometimes so exhausted by this 

 invisible power of fascination, as to perish as efiectually, though not so 

 rapidly, as though they had been exhausted by an electric battery, or a stroke 

 of lightning: "I constantly observed," says he, "that however lively the 

 viper was before, upon being seized by any of these barbarians, he seemed 

 as if taken with sickness and feebleness, frequently shut his eyes, and never 

 turned his mouth towards the arm of the person that held him."f And in 

 another place, he as expressly asserts, that he has seen the animal die while 

 under the stroke of this invisible influence. 



We have here, then, an effect produced, and of the mosfi powerful character, 

 by one animal upon another, without our being in the least degree capable of 

 tracing the medium of operation. 



Whether in this case actual contact is absolutely necessary does not seem 

 to have been ascertained or sufficiently attended to. 



In the case of electric fishes, we have already seen it is not absolutely- 

 necessary; and in another phenomenon, perhaps of a still more extraordinary 

 nature than any I have yet adverted to, it seems to be still less so, and, 

 indeed, not at all necessary, — I mean the very curious fascinating power of 

 the rattlesnake over various small animals, as birds, squirrels, and leverets, 

 which, incapable of turning off their own eyes from those of the serpent- 

 enchanter, and overpowered with terror and amazement, seem to struggle to 

 get away, and yet progressively approach him, as though urged forward, or 

 attracted by a power superior to that of natural instinct, till at length they 

 enter apparently without any foreign force, into the serpent's mouth, which 

 has all along been open to receive them, and are instantly devoured. 



• Travels, &c. Appendix, p. 302. 



t lb. p. 303. 



