194 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
the remotest antiquity. It is asserted, that Orpheus, who probably flourished 
soon after letters were introduced into Greece, knew how to still the hissing of the 
approaching snake, and to extinguish the poison of the creeping serpent. The 
Argonauts are said to have subdued, by the power of song, the terrible dragon 
that guarded the golden fleece; and Ovid ascribes the same effect to the sopo¬ 
rific influence of certain herbs and magic sentences. It was the custom of others 
to fascinate the serpent by touching it with the hand. Of this method Virgil 
takes notice in the seventh book of the iEneid. But it seems to have been the 
general persuasion of the ancients that the principal power of the charmer lay 
in the sweetness of the music. Pliny says, accordingly, that serpents were drawn 
from their lurking places by the power of music. Seneca held the same opinion. 
‘ The wonderful 
effect which music 
produces on the ser¬ 
pent tribes is con¬ 
firmed by the testi¬ 
mony of several re¬ 
spectable moderns. 
Adders swell at the 
sound of a flute, 
raising themselves 
up on the one half 
of their body, turn¬ 
ing themselves 
around,beat ing 
proper time and fol¬ 
lowing the instru¬ 
ment. The head, 
naturally round and 
long like an eel, 
becomes broad and 
flat like a fan. The 
tame serpents, 
many of which the 
Orientals keep in 
their houses, are 
known to leave their 
Egyptian snake charmer. holes in hot weather, 
at the sound of a 
musical instrument, and to run upon the performer. Dr. Shaw had an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing a number of serpents keep exact time with the dervishes in 
their circulating dances, running over their heads and arms, turning when 
they turned, and stopping when they stopped. 
“The rattlesnake acknowledges the power of music as much as any of 
his family, of which the following instance is a decisive proof. When 
Chateaubriand was in Canada, a snake of this species entered their encamp¬ 
ment; a young Canadian, one of the party who could play on the flute, to 
divert his associates, advanced against the serpent with his new species of 
weapon. On the approach of his enemy, the haughty reptile curled himself 
