6402 



Letters of the late Dr. Bromfield. 



the torpidity of the reptiles might be the effect of the incantation, what- 

 ever that singular process may consist in ; and although one kind was 

 a species of slow-worm, it does not follow that, because our own 

 indigenous reptile of that name never is found in houses, no other 

 species of the genus can inhabit the haunts of man, as the same may 

 be said of all our English serpents, which shun the abodes of man- 

 kind, whereas, in warmer climates, snakes of various and totally different 

 genera haunt houses even in the most crowded purlieus of a great city, 

 as at Cairo, where perhaps not a house is free from them. The serpent- 

 charmers pretended to secure me from the accidental effect of the bite 

 of these reptiles, by the not very pleasant process of blowing into the 

 mouth and afterwards pressing the lobe of my left ear between the 

 jaws of one of the snakes, so as to draw a little blood. My late ex- 

 perience in the case of poor Ameen's scorpion's sting in the desert did 

 not strengthen my confidence in the charm, with which, at far less 

 cost of money and suffering, I was fortified by the Cairene exorcist. — 

 p. 218. 



Vermin Annoyances. — There being no bedstead in the room, the 

 mattrass was spread on the floor, which I speedily discovered to be 

 peopled by innumerable hosts of fleas, bugs, ants and cockroaches, 

 whilst, from the time the sun went down, there was neither peace nor 

 quiet to be had, when sitting up, and endeavouring to read or write, 

 from the incessant attacks of mosquitoes, which sang their shrill, small 

 war-notes in my ears without a moment's respite, inflicting punctures 

 on the back of my hands the instant I relaxed in my efforts to drive 

 them away ; from these to me far the most annoying of all insect- 

 tormentors I could defend myself during the night by retiring into my 

 fortress of muslin, as Saad and myself contrived to suspend mosquito- 

 curtains very cleverly over the bedding beneath, by means of strings 

 made fast to nails driven into the walls of the room, and tied to the 

 window-bars; but this was no barrier to the other insect-annoyances, 

 with the exception of the cockroaches, which it effectually kept out, 

 as also a gigantic species of mouse, which replaces in Egypt the com- 

 mon European kind : it is almost the size of a small rat, the body very 

 long and the ears extremely large and round. — p. 227. 



Swimming Snake. — I witnessed to-day a singular attempt of a large 

 snake to make his way against the current of the Nile : after persevering 

 for about a quarter of an hour to stem the stream, he, with the wisdom 

 of his race, yielded to the force of circumstances, and turning his head 

 in the contrary direction, was carried, without effort on his part, to- 

 wards the Mediterranean, in which quarter, it is probable, what- 



