433 
The Scorpion. 
avoid madness, at least for a whole day; the sting proving most 
dangerous when the season is hottest, which is when the Dog-star 
rages; . . . the execration is, May a scorpion of Cashan sting thee. 
But which is more remarkable, and agreeable to what Pliny in his 
Natural History reports of the scorpions in Mesopotamia; they say, 
and we found it true; some of them creeping into our rugs as we 
slept, they seldom or never hurt a stranger.” ( Travels , p. 222.) 
Ben Jonson is also indebted to Pliny for bis know¬ 
ledge of the existence of an antidote to this creature’s 
sting:—■ 
“ Tiberius. I have heard that aconite, ' 
Being timely taken, hath a healing might 
Against the scorpion’s stroke; the proof we’ll give: 
That, while two poisons wrestle, we may live.” 
{Sejanus, iii. 3.) 
Chester has also some information to impart, drawn 
from a classical source 
“ The scorpion hath a deadly stinging taile, 
Bewitching some with his faire smiling face, 
But presently with force he doth assaile 
His captive praie, and brings him to disgrace: 
Wherefore ’tis cald of some the flattering worme, 
That subtilly his foe doth overturne. 
u Orion made his boast the earth should bring 
Or yeeld no serpent forth but he would kill it 
Where presently the scorpion up did spring, 
For so the onely powers above did will it: 
Where in the people’s presence they did see, 
Orion stung to death most cruelly.” 
{Love's Martyr , p. 116.) 
The scorpion, used metaphorically, meant the most 
virulent poison 
“ Macbeth . 0, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! 
Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.” 
{Macbeth, iii. 2, 36.) 
2 F 
