196 



NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, fcales like mod other ferpents. When this animal is in-- 



XXIV 



^ _ • tent on mifchief, it lies coiled like a rope, with the tail a 

 little in motion, which having rattled, it launches forth 

 upon its prey, making no farther reach than its own 

 length ; this done, it coils a fecond time, and again pro- 

 jeifis itfelf. The bite of the rattle-fnake is accounted 

 fatal, at leaft is thought very dangerous over all America;, 

 but with regard to the fafcinating qvialities af its eyes, fuch 

 as the ftory of its cauiing mice, fqiiirrels, and birds to ruiv 

 into its mouth, I reject them as fables; the fuppofed 

 charm confiding in nothing more than this, that ths 

 poor animals, finding themfelves furprized by the im- 

 pending danger, are feized with fuch a trepidation and 

 fear, that even the ufe of their limbs forfakes them, and. 

 they are rivetted to the place till they die, or in the a6l of 

 leaping they are feized by their enemy *. 



In this cabinet I alfo faw the l^/ue dipfas of Surinam,* 

 which had almoft the colour of ultramarine on the back ;. 

 its fides w^ere lighter, and the belly nearly white. I did 

 not learn that the bite of this reptile was fatal, but that 

 it occafions immoderate thirfl in the patient, from which 

 it took its name ; the word dipja fignifying thirft in the 

 Greek language. Another fnake I alfo obferved here, about 

 three feet long, being annulated with diflferent colours, 

 and called amphijbcena, from the fuppolition of its hav- 

 ing two heads ; but the truth is, that from its cylindrical 



• See a letter to the editors of the New Univwfal Magazine for Oflober 1787. 



form 



