SERPENT, SERPENS, in zoology, a general term for all amphibious animals without legs. See COLUBER, BOA, ANGUIS, CÆCILIA, AMPHIBÆNA, CROTALUS, &c.
The serpent has from the beginning been the enemy of man; and it has hitherto continued to terrify and annoy him, notwithstanding all the arts which have been practised to destroy it. Formidable in itself, it deters the invader from the pursuit; and from its figure, capable of finding shelter in a little space, it is not easily discovered by those who would venture to try the encounter. Thus possessed at once of potent arms and inaccessible or secure retreats, it baffles all the arts of man, though ever so earnestly bent upon its destruction. For this reason, there is scarce a country in the world that does not still give birth to this poisonous brood, that seem formed to quell human pride, and repress the boasts of security. Mankind have driven the lion, the tiger, and the wolf, from their vicinity; but the snake and the viper still defy their power.
Their numbers, however, are thinned by human af-
fiduity; and it is possible some of the kinds are wholly destroyed. In none of the countries of Europe are they sufficiently numerous to be truly terrible. The various malignity that has been ascribed to European serpents of old, is now utterly unknown; there are not above three or four kinds that are dangerous, and their poison operates in all in the same manner. The drowly death, the starting of the blood from every pore, the insatiable and burning thirst, the melting down the solid mass of the whole form into one heap of putrefaction, said to be occasioned by the bites of African serpents, are horrors with which we are entirely unacquainted.
But though we have thus reduced these dangers, having been incapable of wholly removing them, in other parts of the world they still rage with all their ancient malignity. In the warm countries that lie within the tropic, as well as in the cold regions of the north, where the inhabitants are few, the serpents propagate in equal proportion. But of all countries, those regions have them in the greatest abundance where the fields are unpeopled and fertile, and where the climate supplies warmth and humidity. All along the swampy banks of the river Niger or Oronoko, where the sun is hot, the forests thick, and the men but few, the serpents cling among the branches of the trees in infinite numbers, and carry on an unceasing war against all other animals in their vicinity. Travellers have assured us, that they have often seen large snakes twining round the trunk of a tall tree, encompassing it like a wreath, and thus rising and descending at pleasure. We are not, therefore, to reject as wholly fabulous the accounts left us by the ancients of the terrible devastations committed by a single serpent. It is probable, in early times, when the arts were little known, and mankind were but thinly scattered over the earth, that serpents, continuing undisturbed possessors of the forest, grew to an amazing magnitude; and every other tribe of animals fell before them. It then might have hap-
pened, that serpents reigned the tyrants of a district for centuries together. To animals of this kind, grown by time and rapacity to 100 or 150 feet in length, the lion, the tiger, and even the elephant itself, were but feeble opponents. That horrible factor, which even the commonest and the most harmless snakes are still found to diffuse, might, in these larger ones, become too powerful for any living being to withstand; and while they preyed without distinction, they might thus also have poisoned the atmosphere around them. In this manner, having for ages lived in the hidden and unpeopled forest, and finding, as their appetites were more powerful, the quantity of their prey decreasing, it is possible they might venture boldly from their retreats into the more cultivated parts of the country, and carry consternation among mankind, as they had before desolation among the lower ranks of nature. We have many histories of antiquity, presenting us such a picture; and exhibiting a whole nation sinking under the ravages of a single serpent. At that time man had not learned the art of uniting the efforts of many to effect one great purpose. Opposing multitudes only added new victims to the general calamity, and increased mutual embarrassment and terror. The animal was therefore to be singly opposed by him who had the greatest strength, the best armour, and the most undaunted courage. In such an encounter, hundreds must have fallen; till one, more lucky than the rest, by a fortunate blow, or by taking the monster in its torpid interval, and surcharged with spoil, might kill, and thus rid his country of the destroyer. Such was the original occupation of heroes; and those who first obtained that name, from their destroying the ravagers of the earth, gained it much more deservedly than their successors, who acquired their reputation only for their skill in destroying each other. But as we descend into more enlightened antiquity, we find these animals less formidable, as being attacked in a more successful manner. We are told, that while Regulus led his army along the banks of the river Bagrada in Africa, an enormous serpent disputed his passage over. We are assured by Pliny, who says that he himself saw the skin, that it was 120 feet long, and that it had destroyed many of the army. At last, however, the battering engines were brought out against it; and these assailing it at a distance, it was soon destroyed. Its spoils were carried to Rome, and the general was decreed an ovation for his success. There are, perhaps, few facts better ascertained in history than this: an ovation was a remarkable honour; and was given only for some signal exploit that did not deserve a triumph: no historian would offer to invent that part of the story at least, without being subject to the most shameful detection. The skin was kept for several years after in the Capitol; and Pliny says he saw it there. At present, indeed, such ravages from serpents are scarce seen in any part of the world; not but that, in Africa and America, some of them are powerful enough to brave the assaults of men to this day.
Nequit expleri corda tuenda
Terribiles oculos villosaque fatis pellere.
If we take a survey of serpents in general, they have marks by which they are distinguished from all the rest of animated nature. They have the length and the suppleness of the eel, but want fins to swim with; they have
Serpent. have the scaly covering and pointed tail of the lizard, but they want legs to walk with; they have the crawling motion of the worm, but, unlike that animal, they have lungs to breathe with: like all the reptile kind, they are resentful when offended; and nature has supplied them with terrible arms to revenge every injury.
Though they are possessed of very different degrees of malignity, yet they are all formidable to man, and have a strong similitude of form to each other. With respect to their conformation, all serpents have a very wide mouth in proportion to the size of the head; and what is very extraordinary, they can gape and swallow the head of another animal which is three times as big as their own. However, it is no way surprising that the skin of the snake should stretch to receive so large a morsel; the wonder seems how the jaws could take it in. To explain this, it must be observed, that the jaws of this animal do not open as ours, in the manner of a pair of hinges, where bones are applied to bones and play upon one another: on the contrary, the serpent's jaws are held together at the roots by a stretching muscular skin; by which means they open as widely as the animal chooses to stretch them, and admit of a prey much thicker than the snake's own body. The throat, like stretching leather, dilates to admit the morsel; the stomach receives it in part, and the rest remains in the gullet, till putrefaction and the juices of the serpent's body unite to dissolve it.
Some serpents have fangs or canine teeth, and others are without them. The teeth in all are crooked and hollow; and, by a peculiar contrivance, are capable of being erected or depressed at pleasure.
The eyes of all serpents are small, if compared to the length of the body; and though differently coloured in different kinds, yet the appearance of all is malign and heavy; and, from their known qualities, they strike the imagination with the idea of a creature meditating mischief. In some, the upper eye-lid is wanting, and the serpent winks only with that below; in others, the animal has a nictitating membrane or skin, resembling that which is found in birds, which keeps the eye clean and preserves the sight. The substance of the eye in all is hard and horny; the crystalline humour occupying a great part of the globe.
The holes for hearing are very visible in all: but there are no conduits for smelling; though it is probable that some of them enjoy that sense in tolerable perfection.
The tongue in all these animals is long and forky. It is composed of two long fleshy substances, which terminate in sharp points, and are very pliable. At the root it is connected very strongly to the neck by two tendons, that give it a variety of play. Some of the viper kind have tongues a fifth part of the length of their bodies; they are continually darting them out; but they are entirely harmless, and only terrify those who are ignorant of the real situation of their poison.
If from the jaws we go on to the gullet, we shall find it very wide for the animal's size, and capable of being distended to a great degree; at the bottom of this lies the stomach, which is not so capacious, and receives only a part of the prey, while the rest continues in the gullet for digestion. When the substance in the stomach is dissolved into chyle, it passes into the
intestines, and from thence goes to nourishment, or to be excluded by the vent.
Like most other animals, serpents are furnished with lungs, which we suppose are serviceable in breathing, though we cannot perceive the manner in which this operation is performed; for though serpents are often seen apparently to draw in their breath, yet we cannot find the smallest signs of their ever respiring it again. Their lungs, however, are long and large, and doubtless are necessary to promote their languid circulation. The heart is formed as in the tortoise, the frog, and the lizard kinds, so as to work without the assistance of the lungs. It is single; the greatest part of the blood flowing from the great vein to the great artery by the shortest course. By this contrivance of nature we easily gather two consequences; that snakes are amphibious, being equally capable of living on land and in the water; and that also they are torpid in winter, like the bat, the lizard, and other animals formed in the same manner.
The vent in these animals serves for the emission of the urine and the feces, and for the purposes of generation. The instrument of generation in the male is double, being forked like the tongue: the ovaries in the female are double also; and the aperture is very large, in order to receive the double instrument of the male. They copulate in their retreats; and it is said by the ancients, that in this situation they appear like one serpent with two heads.
As the body of this animal is long, slender, and capable of bending in every direction, the number of joints in the back-bone are numerous beyond what one would imagine. In the generality of quadrupeds, they amount to not above 30 or 40; in the serpent kind they amount to 145 from the head to the vent, and 25 more from that to the tail. The number of these joints must give the back-bone a surprising degree of pliancy; but this is still increased by the manner in which each of these joints are locked into the other. In man and quadrupeds, the flat surfaces of the bones are laid one against the other, and bound tight by sinews; but in serpents, the bones play one within the other like ball and socket, so that they have full motion upon each other in every direction.
Though the number of joints in the back-bone is great, yet that of the ribs is still greater; for, from the head to the vent, there are two ribs to every joint, which makes their number 290 in all. These ribs are furnished with muscles, four in number; which being inserted into the head, run along to the end of the tail, and give the animal great strength and agility in all its motions.
The skin also contributes to its motions, being composed of a number of scales, united to each other by a transparent membrane, which grows harder as it grows older, until the animal changes, which is generally done twice a year. This cover then bursts near the head, and the serpent creeps from it by an undulatory motion, in a new skin, much more vivid than the former. If the old slough be then viewed, every scale will be distinctly seen like a piece of net-work, and will be found greatest where the part of the body they covered was largest.
There is much geometrical neatness in the disposal
Serpent. of the serpent's scales, for assisting the animal's sinuous motion. As the edges of the foremost scales lie over the ends of their following scales, so those edges, when the scales are erected, which the animal has a power of doing in a small degree, catch in the ground, like the nails in the wheel of a chariot, and so promote and facilitate the animal's progressive motion. The erecting these scales is by means of a multitude of distinct muscles with which each is supplied, and one end of which is tacked each to the middle of the foregoing.
In some of the serpent kind there is the exactest symmetry in these scales; in others they are disposed more irregularly. In some there are larger scales on the belly, and often answering to the number of ribs; in others, however, the animal is without them. Upon this slight difference, Linnaeus has founded his distinctions of the various classes of the serpent tribe.
When we come to compare serpents with each other, the first great distinction appears in their size; no other tribe of animals differing so widely in this particular. This tribe of animals, like that of fishes, seems to have no bounds put to their growth: their bones are in a great measure cartilaginous, and they are consequently capable of great extension: the older, therefore, a serpent becomes, the larger it grows; and as they seem to live to a great age, they arrive at an enormous size.
Leguat assures us, that he saw one in Java that was 50 feet long. Carli mentions their growing to above 40 feet; and we have now the skin of one in the British Museum that measures 32. Mr Wentworth, who had large concerns in the Barbices in America, assures us, that in that country they grow to an enormous length. He one day sent out a soldier, with an Indian, to kill wild-fowl for the table; and they accordingly went some miles from the fort: in pursuing their game, the Indian, who generally marched before, beginning to tire, went to rest himself upon the fallen trunk of a tree, as he supposed it to be; but when he was just going to sit down, the enormous monster began to move; and the poor savage perceiving that he had approached a boa, the greatest of all the serpent kind, dropped down in an agony. The soldier, who perceived at some distance what had happened, levelled at the serpent's head, and by a lucky aim shot it dead: however, he continued his fire until he was assured that the animal was killed; and then going up to rescue his companion, who was fallen motionless by its side, he, to his astonishment, found him dead likewise, being killed by the fright. Upon his return to the fort, and telling what had happened, Mr Wentworth ordered the animal to be brought up, when it was measured, and found to be 36 feet long. He had the skin stuffed, and then sent to Europe as a present to the prince of Orange, in whose cabinet it is now to be seen at the Hague; but the skin is shrunk, by drying, two or three feet. In the East Indies they grow also to an enormous size, particularly in the island of Java, where, we are assured, that one of them will destroy and devour a buffalo. See BOA.
But it is happy for mankind that the rapacity of these frightful creatures is often their punishment; for whenever any of the serpent kind have gorged themselves in this manner, whenever their body is seen particularly
distended with food, they then become torpid, and may be approached and destroyed with safety. Patient of hunger to a surprising degree, whenever they seize and swallow their prey, they seem, like surfeited gluttons, unwieldy, stupid, helpless, and sleepy: they at that time seek some retreat, where they may lurk for several days together, and digest their meal in safety: the smallest effort at that time is capable of destroying them; they can scarce make any resistance; and they are equally unqualified for flight or opposition: that is the happy opportunity of attacking them with success; at that time the naked Indian himself does not fear to assail them. But it is otherwise when this sleepy interval of digestion is over; they then issue, with famished appetites, from their retreats, and with accumulated terrors, while every animal of the forest flies before them.
Carli describes the long serpent of Congo, making its track through the tall grass, like mowers in a summer's day. He could not without terror behold whole lines of grass lying levelled under the sweep of its tail. In this manner it moved forward with great rapidity, until it found a proper situation frequented by its prey: there it continued to lurk, in patient expectation; and would have remained for weeks together, had it not been disturbed by the natives.
Other creatures have a choice in their provision: but the serpent indiscriminately preys upon all; the buffalo, the tiger, and the gazelle. One would think that the porcupine's quills might be sufficient to protect it; but whatever has life, serves to appease the hunger of these devouring creatures: porcupines, with all their quills, have frequently been found in their stomachs when killed and opened; nay, they most frequently are seen to devour each other.
A life of savage hostility in the forest, offers the imagination one of the most tremendous pictures in nature. In those burning countries, where the sun dries up every brook for hundreds of miles round; when what had the appearance of a great river in the rainy season, becomes, in summer, one dreary bed of sand; in those countries, a lake that is never dry, or a brook that is perennial, is considered by every animal as the greatest convenience of nature. When they have discovered this, no dangers can deter them from attempting to slake their thirst. Thus the neighbourhood of a rivulet, in the heart of the tropical continents, is generally the place where all the hostile tribes of nature draw up for the engagement. On the banks of this little envied spot, thousands of animals of various kinds are seen venturing to quench their thirst, or preparing to seize their prey. The elephants are perceived in a long line, marching from the darker parts of the forest; the buffaloes are there, depending upon numbers for security; the gazells relying solely upon their swiftness; the lion and tiger waiting a proper opportunity to seize; but chiefly the larger serpents are upon guard there, and defend the accesses of the lake. Not an hour passes without some dreadful combat; but the serpent, defended by its scales, and naturally capable of sustaining a multitude of wounds, is, of all others, the most formidable. It is the most wakeful also; for the whole tribe sleep with their eyes open, and are consequently for ever upon the
Serpent. the watch; so that, till their rapacity is satisfied, few other animals will venture to approach their station.
But though these animals are of all others the most voracious; and though the morsel which they swallow without chewing, is greater than what any other creature, either by land or water, can devour; yet no animals upon earth bear abstinence so long as they. A single meal, with many of the snake kind, seems to be the adventure of a season; it is an occurrence, of which they have been for weeks, nay sometimes for months, in patient expectation. When they have seized their prey, their industry for several weeks is entirely discontinued; the fortunate capture of an hour often satisfies them for the remaining period of their annual activity. As their blood is colder than that of most other terrestrial animals, and as it circulates but slowly through their bodies, so their powers of digestion are but feeble. Their prey continues, for a long time, partly in the stomach, partly in the gullet, and is often seen in part hanging out of the mouth. In this manner it digests by degrees; and in proportion as the part below is dissolved, the part above is taken in. It is not therefore till this tedious operation is entirely performed, that the serpent renews its appetite and its activity. But should any accident prevent it from issuing once more from its cell, it still can continue to bear famine, for weeks, months, nay for years together. Vipers† are often kept in boxes for six or eight months, without any food whatever; and there are little serpents sometimes sent over to Europe from Grand Cairo, that live for several years in glasses, and never eat at all, nor even stain the glass with their excrements.
† See Abstr. Nat.
If, leaving the consideration of their appetites, we come to compare serpents as to their voices, some are found silent, some have a peculiar cry; but hissing is the sound which they most commonly send forth, either as a call to their kind, or as a threat to their enemies. In the countries where they abound, they are generally silent in the middle of the day, when they are obliged to retire from the heat of the climate; but as the cool of the evening approaches, they are then heard issuing from their cells, with continued hissings; and such is the variety of their notes, that some have assured us they very much resemble the music of an English grove. This some will hardly credit: at any rate, such notes, however pleasing, can give but very little delight, when we call to mind the malignity of the minstrel. If considered, indeed, as they answer the animal's own occasions, they will be found well adapted to its nature, and fully answering the purposes of terrifying such as would venture to offend it.
With respect to motion, some serpents, particularly those of the viper kind, move slowly; while others dart with amazing swiftness. The motion in all is similar; but the strength of body in some gives a very different appearance. The viper, that is but a slow feeble-bodied animal, makes way in a heavy undulating manner; advancing its head, then drawing up its tail behind, and bending the body into a bow; then from the spot where the head and tail were united, advancing the head forward as before. This, which is the motion of all serpents, is very different from that of the earth-worm or the naked snail. The serpent, as
was said above, has a back-bone, with numerous joints; and this bone the animal has a power of bending in every direction, but without being able to shorten or lengthen it at pleasure. The earth-worm, on the other hand, has no back-bone; but its body is composed of rings, which, like a barber's puff, it can lengthen or shorten as it finds necessary. The earth-worm, therefore, in order to move forward, lengthens the body; then by the fore part clings to the ground where it has reached, and then contracts and brings up its rear; then, when the body is thus shortened, the fore-part is lengthened again for another progression, and so on. The serpent, instead of shortening the body, bends it into an arch; and this is the principal difference between serpentine and vermicular progression.
We have instanced this motion in the viper, as most easily discerned; but there are many serpents that dart with such amazing swiftness, that they appear rather to leap than crawl. It is most probable, however, that no serpent can dart upon even ground farther than its own length at one effort. Our fears indeed may increase the force of their speed, which is sometimes found so fatal. We are told by some, that they will dart to a very great distance; but this we have never been able to ascertain. The manner of progression in the swiftest serpent we know, which is the jaculus, is by instantly coiling itself upon its tail, and darting from thence to its full extent; then carrying the tail, as quick as lightning, to the head; coiling and darting again: and by this means proceeding with extreme rapidity, without ever quitting the ground. Indeed, if we consider the length and the weakness of the back-bone in all these animals; if we regard the make of the vertebrae, in which we shall find the junctures all formed to give play, and none to give power; we cannot be of opinion that they have a faculty of springing from the ground, as they entirely want a sulcrum, if we may so express it, from whence to take their spring; the whole body being composed of unsupported muscles and joints that are yielding.
Though all serpents are amphibious, some are much fonder of the water than others; and, though destitute of fins or gills, remain at the bottom, or swim along the surface with great ease. From their internal structure, we see how well adapted they are for either element; and how capable their blood is of circulating at the bottom, as freely as in the frog or the tortoise. They can, however, endure to live in fresh water only; for salt is an effectual bane to the whole tribe. The greatest serpents are most usually found in fresh water, either choosing it as their favourite element, or finding their prey in such places in the greatest abundance. But that all will live and swim in liquids, appears from an experiment of Redi; who put a serpent into a large glass vessel of wine, where it lived swimming about six hours; though, when it was by force immersed and put under that liquid, it lived only one hour and an half. He put another in common water, where it lived three days; but when it was kept under water, it lived only about 12 hours. Their motion there, however, is perfectly the reverse of what it is upon land; for, in order to support themselves upon an element lighter than their bodies, they are obliged to increase their surface in a very artificial man-
Serpent. manner. On earth their windings are perpendicular to the surface; in water they are parallel to it: in other words, if a person should wave his hand up and down, it will give an idea of the animal's progress on land; if to the right and left, it will give some idea of its progress on the water.
Some serpents have a most horrible factor attending them, which is alone capable of intimidating the brave. This proceeds from two glands near the vent, like those in the weasel or polecat; and, like those animals, in proportion as they are excited by rage or by fear, the scent grows stronger. It would seem, however, that such serpents as are most venomous are least offensive in this particular; since the rattlesnake and the viper have no smell whatever; nay, we are told, that at Calecut and Cranganon, in the East Indies, there are some very noxious serpents, who are so far from being disagreeable, that their excrements are sought after, and kept as the most pleasing perfume. The Eseculapian serpent is also of this number.
Some serpents bring forth their young alive, as the viper; some bring forth eggs, which are hatched by the heat of their situation, as the common black snake, and the majority of the serpent tribe. When a reader, ignorant of anatomy, is told, that some of those animals produce their young alive, and that some produce eggs only, he is apt to suppose a very great difference in the internal conformation, which makes such a variety in the manner of bringing forth. But this is not the case: these animals are internally alike, in whatever manner they produce their young; and the variety in their bringing forth is rather a slight than a real discrimination. The only difference is, that the viper hatches her eggs, and brings them to maturity, within her body; the snake is more premature in her productions, and sends her eggs into the light some time before the young ones are capable of leaving the shell. Thus, if either are opened, the eggs will be found in the womb, covered with their membranous shell, and adhering to each other like large beads on a string. In the eggs of both, the young ones will be found, though at different stages of maturity: those of the viper will crawl and bite in the moment the shell that incloses them is broke open; those of the snake are not yet arrived at their perfect form.
Father Labat took a serpent of the viper kind that was nine feet long, and ordered it to be opened in his presence. He then saw the manner in which the eggs of these animals lie in the womb. In this creature there were six eggs, each of the size of a goose egg, but longer, more pointed, and covered with a membranous skin, by which also they were united to each other. Each of these eggs contained from 13 to 15 young ones, about six inches long, and as thick as a goose-quill. Though the female from whence they were taken was spotted, the young seemed to have a variety of colours very different from the parent; and this led the traveller to suppose that the colour was no characteristic mark among serpents. These little mischievous animals were no sooner let loose from the shell, than they crept about, and put themselves into a threatening posture, coiling themselves up and biting the stick with which he was destroying them. In this manner he killed 74 young ones; those that were contained in one of the eggs escaped at the place where the female
was killed, by the bursting of the egg and their getting among the bushes.
The last distinction that we shall mention, but the most material among serpents is, that some are venomous, and some inoffensive. The various calamities that the poison of serpents is capable of producing, are not only inflicted by the animal itself, but by men more mischievous even than serpents, who prepare their venom to destroy each other. With this the savages poison their arms, and also prepare their revengeful potions. The ancients were known to preserve it for the purposes of suicide; and even among semi-barbarous countries at this day, the venom of snakes is used as a philtre.
But though the poison be justly terrible to us, it has been given to very good purposes for the animal's own proper support and defence. Without this, serpents, of all other animals, would be the most exposed and defenceless; without feet for escaping a pursuit, without teeth capable of inflicting a dangerous wound, or without strength for resistance; incapable, from their size, of finding security in very small retreats like the earth-worm, and disgusting all from their deformity, nothing was left for them but a speedy extirpation. But furnished as they are with powerful poison, every rank of animals approach them with dread, and never seize them but at an advantage. Nor is this all the benefit they derive from it. The malignity of a few serves for the protection of all. Tho' not above a tenth of their number are actually venomous, yet the similitude they all bear to each other, excites a general terror of the whole tribe; and the uncertainty of their enemies in which the poison chiefly resides, makes even the most harmless formidable. Thus Providence seems to have acted with double precaution: it has given some of them poison for the general defence of a tribe naturally feeble; but it has thinned the numbers of those which are venomous, lest they should become too powerful for the rest of animated nature.
From these noxious qualities in the serpent kind, it is no wonder that not only man, but beasts and birds, carry on an unceasing war against them. The ichneumon of the Indians, and the peccary † of America, destroy them in great numbers. These animals have the art of seizing them near the head; and it is said that they can skin them with great dexterity. The vulture and the eagle also prey upon them in great abundance; and often, soaring down from the clouds, drop upon a long serpent, which they snatch up struggling and writhing in the air. Dogs also are bred up to oppose them. Father Feuillée tells us, that being in the woods of Martinico, he was attacked by a large serpent, which he could not easily avoid, when his dog immediately came to his relief, and seized the assailant with great courage. The serpent entwined him, and pressed him so violently, that the blood came out of his mouth, and yet the dog never ceased till he had tore it to pieces. The dog was not sensible of his wounds during the fight; but soon after his head swelled prodigiously, and he lay on the ground as dead. But his master having found hard by a banana tree, he applied its juice, mixed with treacle, to the wounds; which recovered the dog, and quickly healed his sores.
Serpent. The Pyllis of old were famous for charming and destroying serpents. Some moderns pretend to the same art. Casaubon says that he knew a man who could at any time summon 100 serpents together, and draw them into the fire. Upon a certain occasion, when one of them, bigger than the rest, would not be brought in, he only repeated his charm, and it came forward, like the rest, to submit to the flames. Philostratus describes particularly how the Indians charm serpents. "They take a scarlet robe, embroidered with golden letters, and spread it before a serpent's hole. The golden letters have a fascinating power; and by looking steadfastly, the serpent's eyes are overcome and laid asleep." These and many other feats have been often practised upon these animals by artful men, who had first prepared the serpents for their exercise, and then exhibited them as adventitiously assembled at their call. In India there is nothing so common as dancing serpents, which are carried about in a broad flat vessel, somewhat resembling a sieve. These erect and put themselves in motion at the word of command. When their keeper sings a slow tone, they seem by their heads to keep time; when he sings a quicker measure, they appear to move more brisk and lively. All animals have a certain degree of docility; and we find that serpents themselves can be brought to move and approach at the voice of their master. From this trick, successfully practised before the ignorant, it is most probable has arisen most of the boasted pretentious which some have made to charming of serpents; an art to which the native Americans pretend at this very day, but the existence of which we are assured of by Mr Hasselquist amongst the native Egyptians.
Though the generality of mankind regard this formidable race with horror, yet there have been some nations, and there are some at this day, that consider them with veneration and regard. The adoration paid by the ancient Egyptians to a serpent, is well known: many of the nations at present along the western coast of Africa retain the same unaccountable veneration. Upon the gold and slave coasts, a stranger, upon entering the cottages of the natives, is often surprised to see the roof swarming with serpents, that cling there without molesting and unmolested by the natives. But his surprise will increase upon going farther southward to the kingdom of Widah, when he finds that a serpent is the god of the country. This animal, which travellers describe as a huge overgrown creature, has its habitation, its temple, and its priests. These impress the vulgar with an opinion of its virtues; and numbers are daily seen to offer not only their goods, their provisions, and their prayers, at the shrine of their hideous deity, but also their wives and daughters. These the priests readily accept of, and after some days of penance, return them to their suppliants, much benefited by the serpent's supposed embraces.