Fournal of a Voyage 
Having been visited one day by one of 
these conjurors, I resolved to see clearly 
his mode of performing this operation ; 
and for that purpose ordered him to seat 
himself ow the floor of the verendah, and 
having satisfied myself with respect to 
the sword, by attempting to bend it, and 
by striking 1t against a stone, I firmly 
grasped it by the handle, and ordered 
him to proceed. 
He first took out a small phial of oil, 
and with one of his fingers rubbed a lit- 
tle of it over the surface of the instrus 
ment; then streching up his neck as 
much as possible, and bending himself 
a little backwards, he introduced the 
point of it into his mouth, and pushed it 
genity down his throat, until my hand, 
which was on the handle, came in contact 
with his lips! 
He then made a sign with one of his 
hands, tor me to feel the point of the in- 
strument, between his breast and navel, 
which I could plainly do, by bending him 
a little more backwards, and pressing my 
fingers on his stomach, he being a very 
thin and lean fellow. | 
On letting go the handle of the sword, 
he instantly fixed on it a little machine 
that spun round, and disengaged a small 
firework, which, encircling his head with. 
a blue flame, gave hiin as he then sat, a 
truly diabolical appearance! 
On withdrawing the instrumeut, seve- 
ral parts of its surface were covered with 
blood, which shewed that he was still ob- 
liged to use a degree of violence in the 
introduction. 
He told me, that he had been accus- 
tomed from his early years to introduce 
at first small elastic instruments down 
his throat and into his stomach; that by 
degrees he had used larger and larger ones, 
unti] at length he was able to use the 
present iron sword. 
As I mentioned before, the great flexi- 
bility of their joints and muscles, the lax- 
ness of their fibres, and their temperate 
mode of life, render them capable of hav- 
ing considerable violence done to the 
fleshy parts of their bodies, without any 
danger of the inflammation, and other 
bad effects, which would be produced in 
the irritable bodies of Europeans. — Wit- 
ness their being whirled round on the 
point of a pole, suspended by a hook 
thrust into the fleshy part of their backs, 
without experiencing any fatal conse- 
quences. 
There is therefore, no great wonder, if 
by long habit, and stretching up their 
necks, they are able to bring the dillercnt 
665— 
windings of the passage from the mouth 
to the stomach into a straight lme of 
nearly so; and thereby slide down the 
sword into the latter organ without much 
difficulty. ; 
From a number of ingenious and uses 
ful experiments made on the poison of 
serpents, by Mr. William Boag, surgeon 
on the Bombay establishment, I cannot 
help extracting the following curious pars 
ticulars, which must gratify the curiosity 
of every reader. 
Mr, B. begins by observing that by far 
the greatest number of serpents are not 
venomous. «Gmelin describes two hun- 
dred and nineteen different kinds of 
snakes; of which Linneus informs” us, 
that only about one in ten is poisonous, 
We likewise know that many snakes 
are not poisonous to man, though they 
may be destructive to lesser animals. 
It would be a desirable thine to- be- 
able to ascertain, from the appearance 
of a snake, whether it be poisonous or 
not; but these patties so nearly resem=- 
ble one another, that it is impossible; 
without great experience, to distinguish 
them, The skin on the bebly and-tail of 
Serpents is composed of scales, which vary 
11 number and arrangement, in different 
serpents; and the colour, which is most 
attended to, is a very fallacious mark, for 
in the Indian Seas. 
it commonly changes with age. <A sere 
peut with a large head is generally sus 
pected to be venomous; but the mark 
whichis chiefly to be depended ov, are thé 
large canine teeth or fangs. 4xed in the 
upper Jaw, which are canmonly two in 
number, but sometimes more. These _ 
teeth are covered with a membranous 
sheath; and are crooked, moveable, and 
hollow, to give passage to the venom, | 
which they receive froma small reservoir, 
that rvas along the palate of the mouth, 
and passes through the body of each 
fang. This reservoir contains but a small 
quantity of venom, which is forced out of 
it when,the animal attempts to bite, by a 
strong muscle, fixed on the upper jaw for 
that purpose. It has been well observed 
by Linneus, that if nature Jhas thrown 
them naked on the cround, destitute of 
limbs, and exposed to every misery, she 
has in return supplied them with adeadly 
poison, the most terrible of all weapons ! 
The symptoms which arise from the 
bite of a serpent, are commonly pain, 
swelling, and redness in the part bitten s 
great faintness with sickness at stomach, 
and sometimes vomiting, succeed; the 
breathing becomes short and laborious; 
the pulse low, quick, and interrupted. 
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