464 NATURAL HISTORY OF AJFRICA. 
native of Egypt and Barbary ; and other species of 
the same genus are met with in Senegal, and at the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
Serpents. 
The great boa (boa constrictor, Lin.) is by some 
naturalists said to be a native of Africa, but more 
accurate observers are opinion, that no species of 
the boa tribe occur in the old world. The large 
serpents of Africa belong to the Python tribe. Jug- 
glers in Egypt train the haje (coluber haje, Lin.) 
to perform a variety of motions, called by them 
dancing, as the Hindoos practice with the cobra 
de capello, (coluber naja, Lin.) in India. The haje 
erects itself when we approach to it ; hence, the an- 
cient Egyptians fancied that it guarded the fields 
it inhabited. They adopted it as the divine em- 
blem of protection, and we observe it sculptured on 
the portals of their temples. It appears also to be 
the serpent described by the ancients under the 
name aspic. 
IV. — Insects. 
Africa affords great variety and abundance of in- 
sects, which are not less remarkable for the beauty 
of their colours, and the brilliancy of their lustre, 
than for the remarkable forms, and adaptations of 
their various parts. Some species we find very 
widely distributed, and occupying many different 
