123 
ture well. A spider became familiar with, and con- 
soled the sorrows of a solitary prisoner in the Bas- 
tile™, and in the dungeon of Magdeburg. 
I have not been so fortunate as to meet with any 
instance of a pet scorpion, centipes, crab, or lobster”. 
Fish have become so familiar as to obey a call. 
Carp, by being constantly fed, may be rendered so 
familiar as to come to the side of the pond to beg 
for bread. Dr. Smith, speaking of great numbers 
at the prince of Conde’s seat at Chantilly, says, they 
heaved each other out of the water as they came in 
shoals to the shore to receive food: they would even 
allow themselves to be handled. Bingley mentions 
a carp that would come to the edge of a pond at the 
whistling of a person who fed it. 
The most formidable and the most disgustful of 
amphibia have been tamed, and have become fami- 
liar with man, and subservient to his use. The 
cobra capello, the most venomous of Indian ser- 
pents, is taught to dance to the sound of music. 
The arts of the magicians who contended with 
Moses at the court of Pharaoh, give evidence of 
the antiquity of such subjugation. The Psylli and 
Marsi, and others mentioned by Pliny, (Nat. Hist. 
™ Baron Trenck. Trenck mentions his familiarity with a 
mouse, and adds, “ I may hereafter publish an essay, in which 
this my mouse and a spider will appear as remarkable characters.”’ 
Vol. ii. p. 187. 
" Pliny relates several wonderful stories of dolphins (appa- 
rently porpoises) which suffered boys and men to ride on their 
backs, and fed from the hands of those who swam about them, 
Nat. Hist. lib. ix. c. 8. 
