The Salamander. 
319 
Modern works on natural history tell us that the 
rattlesnake is only found in America. We find it men¬ 
tioned as occurring in Congo, in Africa, by one of Pur- 
chas’s pilgrims, Lopes, a Portuguese 
“ Other serpents there are that are venemous, that carrie upon the 
tippe of their tayle, a certaine little roundell like a hell, which ringeth 
as they goe, so as it may he heard.” ( Purchas, vol. ii. p. 1003.) 
A description of the Boa Constrictor occurs in the 
natural history notes of the Portuguese resi- 
dent in Brazil, so frequently quoted in this 
volume :— 
“ The gihoya is a snake of the greatest that are in this countrie, 
and there are some found of twentie foot in length. They are very faire, 
hut more wonderfull they are in swallowing a whole deere; they have 
no poison, neither are their teeth great according to the hodie. To take 
their prey whereon they feed, they use this sleight. It layeth it selfe 
along hy the highwayes, and when the prey passeth it leapeth upon it, 
and windes it selfe in such order, and crusheth it so that it hreaketh 
all his hones, and afterward licketh it, and his licking hath such vertues 
that it hruiseth or suppleth it all, and then it swallowes it up whole.” 
( Purchas , vol. iv. p. 1303.) 
The Salamander was supposed, by reason of the 
intense cold of its body, to be able to exist 
in the hottest flames, and even to put out the 
fire. Sir Thomas Herbert writes, in 1626 :— 
“ Salamanders here [Madagascar] he also, a sort of lizard extreme 
cold hy nature, whence (like ice) for some time they endure the fire, 
yea (if little) extinguish it as Aristotle affirms; yet hy tryal we find 
that they will quickly he burnt if the fire he powerful. . . . Commonly 
they obscure themselves in moist and umhragious places, so as when 
they appear they are sure presages of a storm approaching ; their teeth 
and tongues are venemous, hut the other parts may he eaten without 
danger.” ( Travels , p. 23.) 
A modern author, Mr. Frank Bucldand, considers it 
possible that the power possessed by these reptiles of 
