II. p. 387.) On the music stopping too suddenly, or from some

other cause, the serpent, who had been dancing within a circle of country people, darted among the spectators, and inflicted a wound in the throat of a young woman, who died in agony, in half-an- hour afterwards.
The structure of the ear in serpents does not indicate the faculty of acute hearing; yet, when newly caught, these reptiles seem delighted with music, and writhe th^nselves during its continua- tion into graceful attitudes. I am of opinion that, although coated with scales, yet, tiie sensibility of the serpent is great, and the vibration of sound is felt over the whole body, and when tiie notes are harmonious, the eflect is soothing. The Hindoos, from seeing the docile character of venomous serpents in the temples, believe that tiie Deity has condescended to adopt that fonn. — Ed.
* Voyage da sieur Paul Lucas in 1699. vol. i. pages 72 — 78, &c. Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas in 1715. vol. ii. page 348 — 354. — Voyage fait en Egyptepar le sieur Granger, pages 88 — 92.
t Terry, East India, sect. ix.
INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS. 347
poison causes the wounds to become extraordinarily in* flamed, they suddenly cure them with oils and powders, which are then sold to the spectators.* The swelling is certainly only apparent ; the art of counteracting the effect of a poison which has already entered tiie system, and is so much advanced in its progress, is too wonderful to be lightly believed. For fortifying themselves against dan- ger from the bites which they encouhter, it is suflSicient for the jugglers to force the reptile previously, to exhaust the reservoirs in which its venom is enclosed. It cannot be doubted but that they make use of this secret ; since Koempferf has seen it put in practise in the same country, by those jugglers, who teach the serpent Naja, (Cobra de Capello), the poison of which is so justly dreaded, to dance.
But to suppose that the venomous bite of a reptile is not dangerous to certain men, but proves mortal to all
* The snake-stones mentioned in a former note, are generally employed by the Indian snake-charmers, to render the bites of the snakes, which they pretend to be still venomous, innocuous. " He suffers himself," says Major Moor, detailing an exhibition of this kind, " to be bitten by the seemingly enraged reptile, till he bleed. He then, in haste, terror, and cont(»iion, seeks a snake- stone, which he is never without, and sticks it on the wound, to which it adheres. In a minute, or two, the venom is extracted, the bitten part recovers, and the stone falls off, or is removed. If put into a glass of water, it »nks and emits small bubbles every half score of seconds. This is the usual test of its genuineness ; and it is odd if no one will give a rupee, or half a rupee, for such a curiosity.' — ^Ed .
t Koempfer. Amoen. exot, page 565 et seq. — Lac^pMe. Hist, Nat. dea Reptiles, art. du serpent oi lunettes ou Na^d, * Oriental Fragments, p. 80.
348 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
others, is an assertion belongmg peculiarly to the fabu- lous ; the numerous passages in books of travels, in which the power of charming serpents is mentioned, must be interpreted in an allegorical sense. In China there are men who appear to be as bold as the ancient Psylliy and who expose themselves to bites apparently dangerous, but who can only be looked upon as clever impostors. In vain do the Latin and Greek writers assure us, that the gift of charming venomous reptiles was hereditary in certain &milies, from time immemorial ; that, on the shores of the Hellespont, these families were sufficiently numerous to form a tribe ; that in Africa the same gift was enjoyed by the Psylli ; that the Marses in Italy, and the Ophiogenes in Cyprus possessed it, for, on examining their origin, we find that the former pretended to derive it from the enchantress (Xrc^^ the latter, from a virgin of Phrygia uinited to a sacred Dragon.* They forget that, in Italy, even at the commencement of the sixteenth century, men, claiming to be descended from the family of Saint Paul, braved, like the Marses, the bites of ser- pents.t
To repel a statement, which seemed too wonderful, the evidence of Galen may be brought forward ; he says, that, in his time, the Marses possessed no specific secret, and that their art was confined to deceiving the people by address and fraud ;J and that it may be concluded
♦ Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vii. cap. ii.— A. Gell. Noct. Attic, lib.