6i A V O Y A G E T O Book f. 



lignant, though timely care prevents its being fatal. 

 The ftings of the other kinds are produdive of fevers, 

 numbneffesin the hands and feet, forehead, ears, nofe' 

 and lips, tumours in the tongue, and dininefs of fights 

 thefe diforders lad generally tv/enty-four or forty- 

 eight hours, when, by degrees, the patient recovers. 

 The natives imagine, that a fcorpion falling into the 

 water purifies it, and therefore drink it without any 

 examination. They are lo accuftomed to thefe in- 

 iedts, that they do not fear them, but readily lay hold 

 of them, taking care not to touch them only in the 

 laft vertebrae of the tail, to avoid being (lung fome- 

 times they cut their tails off and play with them^ 

 We more than once entertained ourfeives with an ex- 

 periment of putting a fcorpion into a glafs veifel, and 

 injeding a little fmoak of tobacco, and immediately 

 by flopping it found that its averfion to this fmell is 

 fuch, that it falls into the mod furious agitations, till, 

 giving itfeif feveral repeated ftings on the head, it finds 

 relief by deftroying itfeif. Hence we fee that its poi- 

 fon has the fame effe6t on itfeif as on others. 



Here is alfo another infed called caracol foldado, 

 or the foldier-fnail. From the middle of the body to 

 the pofterior extremity it is fhaped like the com.mon 

 fnail, of a whitifh colour and a fpiral form : but the 

 other half of the body refembles a crab, both in fize 

 and the difpofition of its claws. The colour of this, 

 which is the principal part of its body, is of a light 

 brown. The ufual length, exclufive of the tail, is 

 about two inches, and the breadth one and a half. 

 It is deilitute both of fhell and fcale, and the body every- 

 where flexible. Its refource againft injuries is to feek a 

 fnail-fhell of a proper fize, in vv^hich it takes up its 

 habitation. Sometimes it drags this fnail-lhell with 

 it, and at other times quits it, while it goes out in 

 queft of food ; but, on the leaft appearance of danger, 

 it haftens back to the fhell, and thrufiis itfeif into it, 

 beginning with its hind part, fo that the fore part fills 



the 



