750 
THE SALAMANDER. 
fire. Upon a certain occasion, when one of bigger than 
the rest, would not be brought in, he only repeated his charm, and 
it came forward, like the rest, and submitted to the flames. 
Many other feats have been often practised upon these animals 
by artful men, who had first prepared the serpents for their exer- 
cise, and then exhibited them as adventitiously assembled at their 
call. In India there is nothing so common as dancing serpents, 
which are carried about in a broad fiat vessel, somewhat resembling 
a sieve. They erect, and put themselves in motion, at the word of 
command. When their keeper sings a slow tune, they seem by their 
heads to keep time ; and when he sings a quicker measure, they 
appear to move in a more brisk and lively manner. All animals 
have a certain degree of docility, and serpents can be brought to 
move at the voice of their master. From this trick, successfully 
practised before the ignorant, it is most probable has arisen most of 
the boasted pretensions which some have made to the charming of 
serpents; an art to which the native Americans pretend at this very 
day. We are also assured by Mr. Hasselquist, that it is practised 
amongst the native Egyptians, and we know that numerous individuals 
in our ow n country triumph in the exercise of some very extraordinary 
powers over the serpent tribes. 
The Salamander. 
This animal has been said, and even in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions, to have lived in the fire ; but this is a mistake. It is found in the 
southern countries of Europe. The following account of this species 
is extracted from the Count de Lacepede’s Natural History of Ser- 
pents : — Whilst the hardest bodies cannot resist the violence of fire, 
the world have endeavoured to make us believe, that a small lizard 
can not only withstand the flames, but even extinguish them. As 
agreeable fables readily gain belief, every one has been eager to adopt 
that of a small animal so highly privileged, so superior to the most 
powerful agent in nature, and which could furnish so many objects of 
comparison to poetry, so many pretty emblems to love, and so 
many brilliant devices to valour. The ancients believed this property 
of the salamander; and wishing that its origin might be as surprising 
as its pow er, and desirous of realizing the fictions of the poets, they 
pretended that it owed its existence to the purest of elements, which 
cannot consume it, and they called it the daughter of fire, giving it, 
however, a body of ice. The moderns have followed the ridiculous 
tales of the ancients ; and some have gone so far as to think that the 
most violent fire could be extinguished by the land salamander. 
Quacks sold this small lizard, affirming that when thrown into the 
greatest conflagration, it w'^ould check its progress. It was necessary 
that the philosophers should have proved by facts what reason 
demonstrated, but it w^as not till the light of science was diffused 
abroad, that the world gave over believing in this w'onderful property 
of the salamander. This lizard, which is found in so many countries 
of the ancient world, and even in very high latitudes, has been very 
little noticed, because it is seldom seen out of its hole, and because for a 
