SNAKE BITES 
Herpestes contains about twenty. The mungoose is 
Herpestes tchneumon ; and the beast is often spoken of as 
the ichneumon. It has been also called, the Cat of 
Pharaoh, and also by a somewhat remarkable change the 
mouse of Pharaoh. It is found in northern Africa, in 
Palestine and Asia Minor, and creeps into Spain. 
The mungoose is cat-like in its pursuit of rats and mice, 
but nothing comes amiss to it in the way of animal life. 
Buffon remarks that “ its courage is equal to the sharp- 
ness of its appetite, being neither intimidated by the 
anger of the dog, nor the malice of the cat’’—an 
excellent distinction between the characters of those 
carnivores. The mungoose shares with the secretary 
vulture, the hedgehog, and the pig, some immunity 
against the bite of venomous serpents. But it is not 
so certain whether the immunity is not more due to the 
activity of the creature is escaping the strokes of its 
enemy than to any subtle physiological character. In 
any case mungooses have been imported into Sta. 
Lucia for the purpose of confronting the deadly Fer de 
Lance. Legend holds that if the ichneumon is bitten 
it immediately runs off, and eats the leaf of a particular 
plant. It was thought also by the ancients that the 
animal covered itself before engaging in these encounters 
with a coat of mud, so as to render itself impervious to 
the vengeful snake. The Rev. Mr. Topsell related in 
the sixteenth century the story of these combats. 
““ When the aspe espyeth her threatening rage, presently 
turning about her taile, provoketh the ichneumon to 
combate, and with an open mouth and lofty head doth 
enter the list, to her own perdition. For the ichneumon 
being nothing afraid of this great bravado, receiveth the 
encounter, and taking the head of the aspe in his mouth 
biteth that off.’ The introduction of these creatures 
into the West Indies was no doubt useful in the slaughter 
of afew trigonocephali, and more rats, but the carnivore 
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