( 3*3 ) 
I defired an Experiment (hould be tried before feve- 
ral Phyficians ; which was accordingly done in the 
Garden belonging to their College in London. The 
Captain, by keeping the Head fall with a forked 
Stick, and making a Noofe, which he put about the 
Tail of the Snake, tied it faft to the end of another 
Stick wherewith he took him out of the Box, and 
laid him upon the Grafs-plat. Then a Dog being 
made to tread upon him, he bit the Dog, who there- 
upon howl’d very bitterly, and went away fome few 
Yards diftant from the Snake : But in about one 
Minute of time he grew paralytic in the hinder Legs, 
after the manner of Dogs who have the sforta defcen- 
dens tied. He died in lefs than three Minutes time, 
as is related by Mr. Ranby , in an Account of this 
Experiment in Philof. Pranf. N° 401. pag. 377, and 
by Captain Hall, N° 399. pag. 309. 
In my Opinion the whole Myftery of their en- 
chanting or charming any Creature is chiefly this : 
that when fuch Animals as are their proper Prey, 
namely ftnall Quadrupeds or Birds, £fc. are furprized 
by them, they bite them jand thePoifon allows them time 
to run a finall Way, as our Dog did, or perhaps a Bird to 
fly up into the next Tree, where the Snakes watch them 
with great earneftnefs, ’till they fall down, or are 
perfectly dead, when having lick'd them over with 
their Spawl or Spittle, they fwallow them down, as 
the following Accounts relate. 
“ Some People in England (fays Colonel Rever- 
“ ley, in his Hiftory of Virginia, Edit. 2d. p. 160, 
u Lond. 1 722. 8°. are ftartled at the very Name of the 
“ /J^/e-to^andfancyeveryCornerofthatProvince 
Uui “ fo 
