^62 



ON SYMPATHY AND FASCINATION. 



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 de- 

 prived 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 or fascination, as to perish as effectually, 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."t 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 most powerful cha- 

 racter, 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 phaenomenon, perhaps of a still more extraordi- 

 nary nature than any 1 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. 



In the difficulty of accounting for this most extraordinary influence, 

 there are some persons who have ventured, as in the preceding cases, to 

 doubt the truth of the fact, since, in the marvellous, it will always be found 

 far more easy to doubt than to determine, though the belief of it has been 

 very generally gaining ground within the course of the last half century. 

 Pennant seems to allow it with some degree of hesitation, admitting, how- 

 ever, the authority of those who have asserted it. Dr. Mead endeavoured 

 to account for it upon the principle of mere terror ; my late learned friend, 

 Professor Barton of Philadelphia, upon that of a courageous daring of 

 parent animals in defence of their young, in consequence of which they 

 ofl;en venture too near, and are seized upon ; Dr. Barton apprehending 

 that this is a fate which more frequently pursues older than younger ani- 

 mals. Neither of these explanations, however, can be very readily assented 

 to ; the first being inadequate to the effect produced, and the second 

 being contrary to the general observations of naturalists who have treated 

 upon the subject- in consequence of which Major A. Gordon, of South 

 Carolina, has since ventured upon another explanation, which js highly 

 ingenious, and may hereafter, perhaps, be fully substantiated. In a paper 

 pubhshed by him in the New-York Historical Society, he attributes the 

 fascinating power supposed to be possessed by serpents to a vapour which 



* Travels, &c« Appendix^ p. ^02, 



t Travels, &c. App. p. i^O? 



