78 TRAVELS IN 
univerfal ; that afcending the river of tfeat* 
name, as far even as Galam, three hundred 
leagues from its mouth, it equally prevailed 
among the Moors, at the right, and the Ne- 
groes, at the left ; that among thefe people no- 
body doubted this power in certain fpecies of 
ferpents, of fafcinating both animals and men ; 
and that the tradition wsls founded upon long 
experience, and the many misfortunes they are' 
continually witneffing. 
Here again let it be remembered, that I ant 
only the hiftorian, and that I take upon me' 
neither to validate nor explain thefe reports* 
With refped to the two inftances I have ad- 
duced, and of which I am at once the recorder 
and the evidence, they will probably be re- 
garded by many of my readers, as the pure ef- 
fedl of that extreme and involuntary terror 
which every animal experiences by inflindl, at 
fight of an enemy that has power over its life ; 
and they will allege, perhaps, in fupport of 
this fuppofition, the example of the fetter, 
who retains in their place a partridge or a 
hare, by the mere circumftance of his prefence 
and look. 
To this I reply, that if a partridge or a hare 
remair^ 
