184 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. IV- 
credit of possessing a charm against them ; however, I once received 
a very severe sting. When going to sit down on our mat, I inad- 
vertently put my hand, it being dark, on a small scorpion, which 
instantly stung me. Aware of what it was, I procured a light, and 
hastened with a lancet, to cut to the bone and to suck out the 
blood : Mr. Ritchie then burnt a deep hole with caustic. Tlie 
pain remained very acute for some time, and my right side felt 
rather paralysed ; but, owing to the precautions which I had 
taken, I passed a good night, and the next morning found no 
inconvenience except a little swelling, and the usual soreness 
attendant on a burn. Many instances are known of children dying 
of the sting in three days. 
There is a little reptile found in the sand here, called Asehs ; it 
somewhat resembles a lizard in form, and has the power, when 
alarmed, of instantly burying itself in the sand. If one is thrown 
down from the hand, it sinks so perpendicularly on the spot where 
it falls, that it can immediately be found again. These little crea- 
tures are eagerly bought by the girls and married women, for the 
purpose of ascertaining how many children they shall have. By 
stretcliing them, the spine will immediately crack, and the women 
most religiously beheve, that for every sound they shall bear a child. 
The reptiles are few, and consist of lizards, and small snakes, 
some of a venemous kind, called El EfFa. Scorpions and spiders 
are also very numerous ; one of the latter being of an immense size, 
and called Agrab el riahh ^j^ll <_j^ or scorpion of the wind, from its 
great swiftness in running ; its bite is venomous, but not danger- 
ously so. There is a large species of hzard called Warral, which is 
about thirty inches long from the nose to the tip of the tail ; it is 
very fierce, and when it bites, never rehnquishes its hold until it 
dies, or has its mouth forcibly opened. We had one which kept 
a piece of rope in its mouth for four or five days, and in that 
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