CHAPTER XVI.

Secrets to work upon the senses of animals — Ancient and modern examples — Of the power of harmony — The power of good treat- ment— Crocodiles and snakes tamed — Reptiles whose venom can either be destroyed or extracted — Ancient Psylli — The faculty which they possessed of braving the bites of serpents put beyond doubt, by the frequent recent, and repeated experi- ments in Egypt — This faculty proceeds from odoriferous emana- tions, which affect the senses of the reptiles, and escape those of man.
Almost as terrible in their effects as fire, and often more difficult to avoid, are venomous reptiles, and fero- cious animals : it may be asked do they lose their power to injure, at the command of a man, aided by a supernatural science ? Many of the recitals of the ancients upon this subject have aroused the incredulity of the moderns. The history of Orpheus passes with many for a pleasing allegory ; and it was believed that those men, those Manades who played with tigers and panthers, and who, in the representations of the initiations, handled serpents with impunity, were merely Jugglers.
It is not, however, denied that there existed occult methods of acting on animals who are free from our empire by their natural indépendance. The odour of
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Cat-mint* and that of marum,f exercises so powerful an influence on the sense of smelling of cats, particu- larly in warm climates that it appears marvellous to any- one who witnesses the effects of it for the first time. It is easy to take advantage of these and similar plants for enticing the animals whom they affect. If we may believe ancient observers, the elephant loves sweet odours, such as those of flowers and perfames,j and she-goats of the Caucasus are so delighted with the odour of cinnamon, that they will eagerly follow the hand which presents it to them.|| In London, at this day, some men possess the art of enticing rats from their holes, and constraining them, in broad day, to enter into a rat- trap ; the charm consists in some of the straw placed in the trap with the oil of cumin,§ and of anis.^f In
* Nepeta cataria, a perennial plant, common on gravelly and chalky banks, and on road sides, flowering in July. It is a soft, hoary plant, with the upper part of the flower white, but the lower lip spotted with crimson. The whole plant exhales a strong, pungent odour, peculiarly grateful to cats. — Ed.
f Teucrium marum, Cat-thyme, a native of the shores of the Mediterranean. Cats are so fond of the odour of this marum, that they tear the plant when they meet with it. Our author might have added Valerian to his list of plants. — Ed.
% Aelian. de Nat. Anim. lib. i. cap. xxxvm. lib. xui. cap. vm.
|| Philostrat. vit. Apollon, lib. m. cap. i.
§ Cuminum Cyminum, a native of Upper Egypt, and cultivated in Sicily and Malta. The fruit resembles carraway, and has a powerful aromatic odour, depending on its volatile oil, the odour of which is not agreeable to men, although extremely delightful to cats. — Ed.
% Pimpinella Anisum, a native of Scio, Egypt, and Asia, The
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the last century, a man might have been seen walking covered with a swarm of bees, which spread them- selves over his hands and face, and seemed to have forgotten the use of their wings and their stings. It is probable that his secret resembled that which we have pointed out.
Exposure to ferocious beasts was an ordeal used in the Roman Empire ; consequently, secrets proper for lulling the ferocity of ravenous animals were, most probably, well known. Maricus, who under Vi- tellius, endeavoured to restore the Gauls to freedom, passed himself off for a God. Being captured in battle, he was delivered up to wild beasts; but he received no injury from them ; an event which appeared to confirm his pretensions, until Vitellius caused him to be devoured.* The Egyptian Serapionf predicted a simi- lar death to Caracalla ; a famished lion was let loose upon the prophet : he presented his hand to the animal, who retired without injuring him. Another ordeal, however, proved fatal to him.! When wild beasts were let loose upon Thecles, some of the women having
volatile oil has a powerful, not unpleasant aromatic odour. It is poisonous to pigeons. — Ed.
* Tacit. Histor. lib. n. cap. lxi.
t Serapion was a physician of Alexandria, in the third century. His prediction was drawn forth by the vices and cruelties of Cara- calla, who, in consequence of a joke, which likened him to Œdipus and his wife to Jocasta, slaughtered many thousands at Alexandria. He was assassinated at Edessa, by Macrinus, a.d. 217, in the forty-third year of his age. The author, therefore, labours under a mistake in attributing his death to an ordeal. — Ed.
X Xiphilin. in Anton. Caracal,
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thrown upon him spikenard ;* others cassia ;f a third set precious aromatics ; and a fourth perfumed oil ; the beasts were as if overcome with sleep, and The- cles escaped untouched. This recital, borrowed from a work which dates from the commencement of Christi- anity, is probably founded on a real incident ; and affords a proof that the use of penetrating odours has some- times been able to save the wretches condemned to satiate the hunger of carnivorous animals. From a fact related with some details, by Athenseus, it would appear that, in Egypt, the juice of the citron ; taken internally, was used to work this assumed miracle. The experi- ment that he relates is the more striking ; as on repeating it, one of the wretches, who had escaped death, was permitted to use this precaution, a favour which was
* Spikenard, Nardastachys Iatamansi of De Candolle, the Nard of the Bible, and the Nardo-stachys of the ancients. It is known in India by the name bal-chur. It is a mountain plant, belonging to the natural order, Valerianacese, and has a close affinity to the Celtic Valerian, which is found on the mountains of Austria ; whence it is exported to Egypt, on account of its powerful, yet agreeable odour, for perfuming baths. In India, the Iatamansi is used for scenting oils and perfumes. — Ed.
f The name Cassia is here probably intended for Cinnamon, as the oil of the Laurus Cassia has not an agreeable odour. The term Kaschu-manis , sweet wood, derived from two Malayan words is frequently used for Cinnamon in India. The wood of the tree, without being barked, was anciently carried into Greece by the Phoenicians, who, at the same time, probably also imported the oil : and it is more likely that, in the ceremony referred to in the text, neither the Spikenard nor the Cinnamon was used, but merely the volatile oil of these plants. — Ed.
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denied to another. The first was spared by the ferocious beasts; the* second perished, being immediately torn to pieces.* It may be rationally doubted whether the Citron has ever been thus efficacious ; but the rind might serve to inclose more powerful ingredients.f Accord- ing to Aelian a coating of elephant's grease is an infalli- ble preservative, j the odour, as penetrating as it is foetid, peculiar to the carcase of this great quadruped, renders this less incredible. A similar secret will doubtless explain the security of the jugglers who, says Tertullian, are seen, in public places, exposed to the fury of ferocious beasts, whose bites they defy and avoid with wonderful agility. Firmus, who was invested for a time with the imperial purple at Alexandria, swam amongst croco- diles with impunity ; it is supposed that he owed this preservation to the o our of the crocodiles' grease with which he had rubbed his body.|| It is probable that the knowledge of an analogous secret having become common, was the cause of a similar ordeal formerly em- ployed in Hindustan falling into disuse. The accused was obliged, in the presence of Brahmans, to swim across a river frequented by the Moudela (crocodile) ; and was only absolved when he escaped from the jaws of this
* Aihen. lib. in. cap. v.
f The juice of the Citrus Medica is not unlike that of the Orange. The odour of the rind is grateful, but not very power- ful ; it is, therefore, more probable that, the fruit after the abstrac- tion of the juice, was filled with strong odours, than that the juice of the fruit itself taken internally, was employed for the pur- pose mentioned in the text. — Ed.
X Aelian. de Nat. Animal, lib. i. cap. xxxvu.
|| Vospic in Firmo.
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amphibious animal.* The Mexican priests rubbed the body with a pommade to which they attributed magical virtues ; and at night they wandered in desert places, without fearing ferocious beasts; the odour of this unguent keeping them at a distance. There still exists a method of making animals, generally formidable, fol- low any one without danger ; a feat commonly practised by men, who make a trade of enticing away dogs for sale to supply anatomists; and sometimes by hunters, who wish to allure wolves into a snare. It consists in striking the sense of the male by odours resembling the emana- tions which the female exhales in the time of rutting. It has been mentioned, in detail, by one of the most original and the most philosophical writer of the six- teenth century.f Galenj has also mentioned it ; but it
* Paulin de St. Barthélemi, Voyage, &c. vol. i. page 428. — The Crocodile of the Ganges differs from that of the Nile, and is placed by Cuvier in that division of the tribe, named Glaviales ; but it is equally voracious as the Egyptian reptile. As the Egyptian priests possessed the secret of taming their crocodiles, it is not improbable that the Brahmans also tamed the Moudela. The ordeal mentioned in the text, was performed in their presence : and when they were desirous of exculpating the accused, a part of the river containing the tame crocodiles might be selected. The tame crocodiles in Egypt were fed with cakes, and sweatmeats ; and rings and pre- cious stones were hung in the opercula of their ears, which were pierced for the purpose, and their fore feet adorned with bracelets when they were presented tor the veneration for the people : a de- monstrative proof of the tameness to which they were reduced. —Ed.
t Rabelais. Hist, de Gargantua et de Pantagruel, liv. i. chap.
XXII.
% Galen, lib. i. Aphorism, xxii.
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was known long before the time of that celebrated physician. In the temple of Olympus, a bronze horse was exhibited, at the sight of which real horses expe- rienced the most violent emotions. Aelian judiciously observes that the most perfect art could not imitate nature sufficiently well to produce so strong an illusion : like Pliny and Pausanius,* he, consequently affirms, that in the casting of the statue, a magician had thrown some Hippomanes upon it ; and thus we have the secret of the apparent miracle. Every time they desired to work it, they duly covered the bronze with liquid Hippomanes, or with a drug which exhaled the odour of it.f
A similar artifice attracted the bulls towards the brazen heifer, the masterpiece of Myron ; as it is not probable that these animals were sensible of the beauty of the sculpture ; a less perfect representation, would under similar circumstances, have equally provoked their de- sires.
The same secret shows, perhaps, the origin of the dream by which, it was said, a mortal favoured by the Gods drew after him lions and tigers, who were thus deprived of their ferocity. This miracle has been attri-
* Pausanias. Eliac. lib. i. cap. xxvu. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxviii. cap. ii. Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. xiv. cap. xvm.
f The Hippomanes is a plant which grows in Arcadia: by which young coursers and swift mares are excited to furious desires. — (Theocrit. Eidyll. n.vers. 48 — 49.) Junius Philargyrus (in Géorgie, lib. in, vers. 280.) confines the effect of this plant to the mares who eat of it. Nevertheless, perhaps, the odour which this vegetable exhaled was the principle of its properties, and they were enabled to make use of it to work the assumed miracle which has been noticed.
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buted more generally to the power of music. Plato assures us that song and melody can tame savage ani- mals, and even reptiles.* We might be tempted to believe that, in this case, the philosopher had allowed himself to be governed by the not very philosophic live- liness, of his imagination, or that he had only repeated an opinion, which we might suppose was not received from, nor founded upon observation. The charm of music, however, has consoled elephants in their captivity, when they have fallen into the power of man ; and, in their domestic state, the execution of measured airs and har- monised chords is sufficient, it is said, to make them stand erect upon their hind legs.f In. Lybia, savage mares are so sensible to music, that it has been used as a method of taming them. J Even some fish, we are told, are not free from its power, and it has made the capture of them much more easy;|| and moderns, less disposed to be credulous, are nevertheless forced to acknowledge the power which music exercises over tortoises and spiders.^ Its influence over elephants has been frequently verified before our eyes, in public exhibitions. A tra-
* Plato, de Rep. lib. n.
f Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. xn. cap xliv. et lib. n. cap. n.
% Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. xu. cap. xliv.
|| Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. vi. cap. xxxi. — xxxn.— It is perhaps upon this account, that fishermen, who are generally ex- tremely superstitious, sing a peculiar crone in dredging oysters. —Ed.
§ We are not aware of the ground upon which this remark of our author is founded ; as the organ of hearing in spiders has not been discovered ; and that of the tortoise is not well adapted for the delicacy of musical sounds. — Ed.
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veller has also informed us that he saw, with surprise, the cumbrous Hippopotamus so delighted by the measured noise of a war march, as to follow the drums, swimming the whole length of a river. Large Lizards and Iguanos are still more susceptible of harmonious sounds. A song, and even soft and measured whistling, has more than once been able to stop them, until they were under the hand of the hunter.*
Cats, who are overcome or frightened by sounds that are too piercing, are agreeably affected by music, if the softness of its modulations are proportionate to the sus- ceptibility of their organs. Dogs, on the contrary, appear to be sensible to none but mournful music. Loud and piercing sounds draw from them only prolonged howlings.
In a temple, a lyre, which passed for that of Orpheus, was preserved : an amateur bought it, persuaded that in touching it he should, like the first possessor of the in- strument, see animals running round him charmed by the melody. He made a trial of it in a remote place, and soon perished, having been torn to pieces by savage dogs.f It was not only, as Lucian pretends, his pre- sumption which cost him his life, but his imprudence ; and the forgetfulness of a physical effect which daily experience recals to our recollection, and which would place the life of an organ player in danger, if out of the reach
* Lacépède. Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes Ovipares, art. Iguane. — Fournier-Pescay. Dictionnaire des Sciences médicales, art. Musique.
f Lucian. " Contre un Ignorant qui achetait beaucoup de Livres," Œuvres complètes de Lucien, tome. iv. page 274 — 276.
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of succour. He made the harsh sounds of his instrument to resound in the midst of a troop of wild dogs.*
The influence of modulated sounds upon animals must have been more studied formerly than it is in the pre- sent day ; the experiments were more varied, and their results more extended. Let us remember that, in the temples, they sought out and tried every method of work- ing what they desired to be regarded as miracles ; and what wonder could be more seducing or more worthy of being represented in the celebration of those mysteries, of which Orpheus was one of the prin-
* The influence of loud and harsh sounds on dogs, is well exemplified in the following anecdote, recorded by Sir David Brewster, in his Letters on Natural Magic. " When peace was proclaimed in London, in 1697, two troops of horse were dis- mounted, and drawn up in line in order to fire their vollies. Op- posite the centre of the line was the door of a butcher's shop, where there was a large mastiff dog of great courage. The dog was sleeping by the fire ; but when the first volley was discharged, it immediately started up, ran into another room, and hid itself under a bed. On the firing of the second volley, the dog rose, ran several times about the room, trembling violently, and appa- rently in great agony. When the third volley was fired, the dog ran about once or twice with great violence, and instantly fell down dead, throwing up blood from the mouth and nose." (p. 216.) It may be said, that the dog, in this instance, might have been dreaming, and connected the noise of the firing, with some inci- dent in his dream, sufficient to excite great alarm : but we are told that he was a dog of great courage, and although he might be greatly agitated on being awakened by the firing, yet it is not likely that this alarm would continue to such an extent as to cause death. We must, therefore, refer it to the great susceptibility of dogs for sound ; and the effect of so loud a concussion of the air on his nervous system. — Ed.
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cipal founders, than that which realised the brilliant mi- racle of that musician ?
We are ignorant how far the moral development of animals extends. We, who in our relations with them, obtain everything by terror, by constraint, by hardship, and by punishments, rarely or never seek to know what may be obtained from them by mildness, by caresses, or by amiable feelings. We seem practically to follow the absurd opinion of Descartes ; we treat animals as if they were only machines. Less enlightened nations than our- selves treat them as sensible beings, as creatures not less susceptible of kindness than men ; beings who may be led by good treatment, and by that part of their feelings and affections of which these nations know how to take advantage. What can be thus obtained, renders probable all that ancient authors have related of savage animals which have become domesticated, and have even been rendered affectionate. Cynocephali have lost their love of unsettled independence ; and bulls their wild and suspicious tem- per ; even lions and eagles have lowered their pride, and exchanged it for a submissive attachment to the man from whom they have received kindness.*
* Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. n. cap. xl. lib. v. cap. xxxix. lib. vi. cap. x. lib. xn. cap. xxm. — The Editor saw the exhibition of Van Amburg, when he visited London in 1843. He fear- lessly entered the grated boxes, or dens, containing tigers and other savage animals, who seemed to regard him with no evil intentions : and, indeed, were completely submissive to his con- trol. The method which this man employed to tame these animals is not known; but it is probable that it was partly gratitude, and partly fear which held them in submission. He regularly fed them himself, and their hunger was well satiated
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Goats and crows were brought into the temples to declare the oracles ; but the learned animals that are fre- quently offered to public curiosity, show us what part of the will of heaven charlatanism could draw from these singular interpreters.
We may hesitate, therefore, before denying the existence of the tamed tigers, which so many traditions inform us figured in the fêtes of Bacchus ; and which, bred at Thebes, attended in the temples of that God, opening and closing their frightful jaws, that there might be poured into their throats, at long intervals, draughts of wine,* with which prudence probably mixed some sopo- rific drugs.
The employment of carrier pigeons did not take its rise in civilized Europe; its antiquity is so great in the East, that the national writers affirm it was used
before his public exhibitions. The ferociousness of wild carnivo- rous animals may be regarded as a gift of Providence, to enable them to obtain their subsistence. They occasionally fight with each other ; and the conquered may even be devoured by the con- queror ; but it does not follow that their dispositions are naturally cruel, or that the ferocity which they display is exerted for other purposes than in procuring their prey when hunger prompts. Even animals usually supposed to have a natural enmity to each other, as the hawk and the linnet, if well fed, display no disposi- tion to exert animosity. A striking proof of this remark is daily exhibited in the streets of London, by a person who has a cage containing cats, mice, hawks, linnets, rabbits, and various other animals, living together in perfect amity. It is, therefore, very possible that a man, being exposed to wild beasts, soon after they have been well fed, would remain unattacked ; and thus an appa- rent miracle be produced. — Ed.
* "Expectant que cibos, fuso que horrenda supinant ora mero." (Stat. Thébaid. lib. vu. vers. 575—576.)
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in the Pantapole of Palestine. Among the Arabs two months were sufficient for the education of a pigeon : bad treatment had no part in it ; and the pigeons were so well brought up that, according to the direction in which they were placed, they carried messages to three different places.* The Greeks were not ignorant of this art. A dove flew from Pisa to the isle of Egina, to announce to the father of Taurosthenus the victory which that wrestler had won, the same day, in the Olympic games. This fact, though not common, appeared too simple for the friends of the marvellous ! In detailing the event, instead of the winged messenger they substituted a phantom, an apparition.f Ancient history informs us of more than one victory, the news of which had arrived almost at the moment in which it was accomplished ; and, probably by an analogous process, even in places distant from that in which the battle had been fought. The means of communication being kept secret, its rapidity appeared a miracle due to the intervention of some su- pernatural agent.
If it were proposed to a European to tame a Cro- codile, and if he undertook the task, he w7ould probably employ hunger and the privation of sleep ; and he would
* The Carrier Dove, (translated from the Arabic by Sylvester de Sacy. in 8°. Paris, 1805.) pages 36, 52, & 74.
f Aelian. Var. Hist. lib. ix. cap. n. Pausanius Eliac. lib. n. cap. ix. — In the last days of the Roman republic, Hirtius em- ployed the same method to communicate his movements to Deci- mus Brutus, besieged in Modena. (Frontin Stra. lib. in. cap. xiii.) The impatience of swallows to fly back to their nests, has caused them to be employed in a similar manner. Pliny has quoted two examples of it. (Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. xxv.)
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endeavour to weaken the animal until he rendered him docile or incapable of resistance. Would he succeed ? We may reply in the negative. Mr. Laing# saw, at the house of the King of Soolimas,f a tamed Crocodile as gentle as a dog ; but this animal was a prisoner, shut up in a pond in the palace. Would it not, we may inquire, regain its natural ferocity were it set at liberty ? The Scheik of Suakem| having caught a young Crocodile, tamed it and kept it in a pond near the sea. The animal grew very large, but did not lose its docility : the Prince placed himself upon its back, and was carried a distance of more than three hundred steps by it.|| In the isle of Sumatra, in 1823, an immense Crocodile established itself at the mouth of the Beaujang : it had chased away all the other Crocodiles ; and devoured all those who ventured to return. The inhabitants rendered it divine homage, and respectfully supplied it with food. " Pass," said they to the English missionaries who relate the fact, and who seemed afraid to approach the formi- dable amphibious creature, " pass on, our God is mer- ciful." In fact, it peaceably regarded the European's boat, without giving any signs either of fear or anger
* Laing's Travels among the Timaunies, the Kouranko, and the Soolimana, p. 353.
f The Soolimas are a negro race, occupying the country near the river Ioliba, on the coast of Sierra Leone. They are a short, muscular, and warlike people. — Ed.
X A sea-port town in Nubia, on the west coast of the Red Sea. —Ed.
|| Vincent Le Blanc. Voyages.— 1ère, partie, chap. ix. tome i. p. 39.
VOL. I. Z
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or of a wish to attack it.* This trait recals to recol- lection the sacred Crocodiles, which the people of Upper Egypt worshipped. We might ask, is that a fact? Can it be possible ? Did not the priests, every day, run the chance of becoming the prey of their divinities, of pondrous and fierce animals, formidable on the earth, and still more so in the water ? Far from this being the case, we see how easy it is to tame the worshipped animals, who thus re-assured, by long experience, against the fear of the aggressions of man, and the anxiety of want, lose their savage instinct. There was, therefore, probably little exaggeration in what was said of the sacred Crocodiles : by a disciple of the Egyptian priests, " The Soukh-oos is kind, for he never harms any ani- mal."!
* John Anderson, Missionary to the eastern side of Sumatra, in the year 1823. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, tome xxx. p. 260. — The crocodile of the Ganges is also very easy to tame. Voyages aux Indes Orientales, by P. Paulin de Saint Barthélemi, tome ni, p. 281—282, note.
f Damasc. Isidori Vit. ap. Photium. Bill. Cod. 242. — Soukh- os ; this name, according to M. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire, designated a distinct speciesof crocodile. TheEgyptians detested the Crocodile T'emsah, a voracious animal, which caused them to suffer frequent injuries : but they liked the Soukh, a species of a less size, rarely terrible to men : and which, showing itself on earth before all the other Crocodiles, at the swelling of the Nile, seemed to announce and to bring the benevolent inundation, of which it became the sacred symbol. Upon the banks of the Ganges the Indians also distinguished two species of Crocodiles, one ferocious and carnivo- rous, the other perfectly innocent. (Aelian. De nat. anim. hb. xn. cap. xli.)
The reptile thus worshipped is supposed by M. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire not to have been the common Crocodile, Crocodilus
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The agility of the movements of serpents, the enormous strength of these reptiles; the difficulty of distinguishing at the first glance those whose bite is not venomous from those which are poisonous, is sufficient to explain the fear and horror which serpents inspire ; and the idea of supernatural power attached to the
vulgaris, the T'emsah of the Egyptians, but the Monitor, or Suchus ; an opinion, however, which Cuvier combats, because he affirms that the Monitor is as ferocious as the common Crocodile. In ancient Egypt, the Crocodile was one of the symbols of Typhon, the evil Deity ; and some of the bronzes bear the representation of a man, supposed to be Horus (whose father, Isis, was slain by Typhon,) standing on a Crocodile. The tame Crocodiles, as stated in a former note, were daily fed with roasted meat and cakes, and had occasionally mulled wine poured down their throats. Their ears were ornamented with rings of gold and pre- cious stones, and their fore feet adorned with bracelets. As such was the treatment of the sacred Crocodiles, there is no difficulty in accounting for their docility. The most ferocious animals will not attack their ordinary prey, when well fed. The following- account is given of a tame Alligator, in a private letter, quoted in a review of the Erpétologie Générale, and affords an excellent proof of the foregoing remark. The writer having ridden a consi- derable distance to a village about eight miles from Kurrachee, in Scinde, and feeling thirsty, went to a pool to procure some water. " When I got to the edge," says he, " the guide who was with me pointed out something in the water, which I had myself taken to be the stump of a tree ; and although I had my glasses on, I looked at it for some time before I found that I was standing within three feet of an immense Alligator. I then perceived that the swamp was crowded with them, although they were all lying in the mud so perfectly motionless that a hundred people might have passed without observing them. The guide laughed at the start I gave, and told me that they were quite harmless, having been tamed by a Saint, a man of great piety, whose tomb was to be seen on a hill close by ; and that they continued to obey the
z 2
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art of handling them, and of rendering them power- less. The biographer of Pythagoras, anxious to exalt his hero, calls our admiration to the philosopher's exercising a power equal to that of Orpheus upon animals, and handling with impunity serpents, dangerous to all
orders of a number of Fakeers, who lived around the tomb. I pro- ceeded to the village immediately, and got some of the Fakeers to come down to the water with a sheep. One of them then went close to the water with a long stick, with which he struck the ground, and called to the Alligators, which immediately came crawling out of the water, great and small together, and lay down on the bank all around him. The sheep was then lolled and quartered; and while this was going on, the reptiles continued crawling until they had made a complete ring around us. The Fakeer kept walking about within the circle, and if any one attempted to en- croach, he rapped it unmercifully on the snout with his stick, and drove it backwards. Not one of them attempted to touch him, although they showed rows of teeth that seemed able to snap him in two at a bite. The quarters of the sheep were then thrown to them, and the scene that followed was so indescribable that I shall not attempt it ; but I think if you will turn to Milton, and read his account of the transformation of Satan and his crew in Pande- monium, you may form some faint idea ' how dreadful was the din.' In what manner these monsters were first tamed I cannot say. The natives, of course, ascribe it to the piety of the Saint, who is called Miegger Pier, or Saint Alligator." a
Another reason might be assigned for the impunity with which persons have gone amongst Crocodiles, namely, that in some places, as in the Nicobar islands, there may be two species of Crocodiles ; one small, fierce, and rapacious ; the other large, less fierce, and preying only upon carrion. This anecdote is, at all events, quite sufficient to give authenticity to the stories of the ancients respect- ing the Crocodile. The Egyptian God, Souk, is represented with the head of a Crocodile. — En.
a Edinburgh Review, vol. lxxx. p. 428.
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but himself.* Jugglers who exhibit in a similar man- ner in public, profit by their facility in inspiring fear, to extort money from the curious ; and this singular kind of pilfering has been repeated often enough to draw down the animadversion of the law upon its authors.f
There were always supposed to be a great number of serpents, the bite of which was not of a venomous cha- racter which easily admitted of their being tamed. Such were doubtless those immense, but harmless serpents, that were seen in many ancient temples ; j the serpent, fifteen feet long, which Ajax, son of Oileous, had tamed,|| and which followed him like a faithful dog, and the enormous reptile that was taken alive by the soldiers of Ptolemy Auletes,§ and which became as gentle as a domestic animal. Tamed adders, perfectly docile and affectionate, have been seen a thousand times in Europe. In Timauni a serpent was shown to the traveller Laing,^[ which, at the order of the musician, curved itself, rolled itself, and jumped, as obediently and adroitly as the best disciplined animals.** Among the negroes of Dutch
* Iamblich. in Vit. Pythag. cap. xiv. et cap. xviii.
f " In circulatores qui serpentes circumferunt et proponunt, si cui, ob eorum metum, damnum datum est, pro modo admissi actio dabitur." Digest, lib. xlvii. tit. xi. § xi.
X Aelian. De Nat. Anim. lib. xm. cap. xxxix. xv. — 321. xvi. 39.
|| Philostract. in Heroic.
§ Tzetzès. Chiliad, in. n. 113.
^| Laing. Travels among the Timaunies the Kouranko, etc. p. 244 —246.
** I shall quote the passage, to show the extraordinary influence which the Soolimana jugglers possess over serpents. " A droll- looking man," says M. Laing, " who played upon a sort of guitar,
342 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
Guinea, there are women who have the occupation of divi- neresses, one of the proofs of whose supernatural art is to tame the serpent, papa or ammodite, a reptile of large dimensions but which is never dangerous ; and to make it descend from a tree only by speaking to it.#
the body of which was a calabash, commenced a sweet air, and accompanied it with a tolerably fair voice. He boasted that by his music he could cure diseases ; that he could make wild beasts tame, and snakes dance : if the white man did not believe him, he would give him a specimen. With that, changing to a more lively air, a large snake crept from beneath a part of the stockading in the yard, and was crossing it rapidly, when he again changed his tune, and playing a little slower, sung, ' Snake, you must stop : you run too fast ; stop at my command, and give the white man service.' The snake was obedient, and the musician continued, ' Snake, you must dance, for a white man is come to Falaba ; dance, snake, for this is indeed a happy day.' The snake twisted itself about, raised its head, curled, leaped, and performed various feats, of which I should not have supposed a snake capable." L. c. p. 245.
In India the snake charmers are equally adroit, and play many tricks to excite the astonishment of Europeans who have shortly arrived in the country. They also pretend to catch snakes, when these reptiles get into houses. Those who practise this employ- ment are called Sampoori ; but they are great rogues, and gene- rally take the snake, which they pretend to catch, with them. Among other tricks, they assert that they take a stone from the head of the snake, which has the virtues of an amulet. Major Moor gives an amusing anecdote of his having detected this im- position of extracting a snake-stone, in a Sampoori, whom he employed to catch a snake in his fowl-house. " At the proper moment," says he, " I seized the snakeless hand of the operator, and there found, to his dismay, perdue, in his well closed palm, the intended to be extracted stone. The fellow made a free and good humoured confession of the trick." — Ed.
* Stedmann. Voyage in Surinam, vol. in. p. 64 — 65.
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Even the Asp,# so justly dreaded, may be tamed with- out trouble. In Hindustan, sugar and milk, which are given to it every day, suffice to work this miracle. The reptile returns regularly at the accustomed hour to take the repast which awaits him, and never injures any one.f Was it not by an analogous artifice that the Egyptian priests caused inoffensive Asps to come forth from the altar of Isis ? And by which, so often in Greece
* The Asp, Vipera Haje, Puff Adder ? is a snake of a green colour, about five feet in length, marked with brown bands ; and which like the Cobra de Capella, has the power of swelling its neck externally when it raises itself to strike its victim. Its venom is most deadly, and is supposed to be that which Cleopatra employed to terminate her existence after the loss of her imperial paramour. The reptile, although most venomous, yet possesses remarkable social qualities, never living alone, and revenging the death of its fellow with the utmost fury. The jugglers of Grand Cairo possess the art of taming it, and of depriving it of its poison bag. They have also the art of throwing it into a state of catalepsy, by pressing the nape of the neck with their fingers, so that it becomes stiff and immoveable like a rod. The rods of the Egyptian priests who con- tended with Aaron,were probably real cataleptic Asps, which regain- ed animation when thrown upon the ground. The Asp erects itself when approached, a circumstance which led the ancient Egyptians to assume that it thus guarded the place it inhabited ; and to ve- nerate it as the emblem of the Divinity protecting the world. It is found sculptured on their temples, erect, on each side of a globe.
The poison of the Asp is secreted at some distance from the fangs, and is conveyed to them by a tube which terminates in the pulp cavity, at the base of the fang, where a groove commences, superficial at first, but gradually sinking into the substance of the tooth, and terminating in a longitudinal fissure near its apex. Through this groove the poison is ejected and infused into the wound. — Ed.
f Paulin de St. Barthélemi. Voyages aux Indes Orientales, vol. i, p. 477.
344 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
and in Italy, sacred serpents came to devour the presents disposed upon the altars of the Gods, thus giving to the people, a certain presage of happiness and of victory.
There are few stories more common than those of genii being metamorphosed into the form of serpents, and placed to guard subterranean treasures. This belief is still popular in Brittany, in the district of Lesneven.* It is general in Hindustan : and there, at least, it is supposed it is not always without foundation. Forbes, an English observer, who is generally quoted with confidence in his veracity, relates the following anecdote. In a village of Hindustan, a vault, placed under a tower, contained, it was said, a treasure guarded by a genii, under the form of a serpent. Guided, even by the workmen who had built the vault, Forbes caused it to be opened : it was of considerable depth and, he discovered there an enor- mous serpent, which he compared, by its size, to the cable of a vessel. The reptile, unrolling itself slowly, raised itself towards the opening made in the upper part of the vault. The workmen immediately threw into it some lighted hay, and the serpent died from suffocation. Forbes found there its carcase, but not the treasure ; the proprietor having probably carried it away.f The reader will observe, that the construction of the vault was not ancient. The serpent, that had been placed there, had already attained to a large size, and it must have been well tamed, and very docile, to allow itself to be con- fined there : it also must have known its master well
* Cambry. Voyage dans le département du Finistère, vol. n. p. 25.
f Oriental Fragments, p. 84.
INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS. 345
since the latter was able to carry off his riches, without having any thing to fear from the sentinel, which watched over them ; and whose life he should then have saved, by restoring it to liberty.
The most dangerous serpents, with the exception of those which are terrible from their strength, cease to be hurtful from the time when they lose their fangs, which are destined by nature to convey the poison, with which they are armed, into the wounds that they make. To make them bite several times, a piece of rag or some stuff, such as felt , is held out to them ; and thus the reservoirs of venomous liquid are drained, a circumstance which is often sufficient to prevent their bite, for one or more days, from carrying with it any danger. In the capi- tals of Europe, and in the savage interior of Africa, # one or other of these secrets is used by those impostors, who play with snakes before the eyes of a frightened crowd.f
* Voyages and discoveries in Africa ; &c. by Oudney, Denham, and Clapperton. vol. in. pages 39 — 40.
f Our author labours to prove, that the serpents played with by the Indian, and Egyptian jugglers, are either harmless serpents, or those from which, as the Abbé Dubois would lead us to believe, the venom fangs have been extracted.a But there can be no doubt that the ancient Psylli had some method of fascinating all kinds of serpents ; and the art may be still known to their successors in Egypt, and Hindostan. — In the Psalms (chap, lviii. v. 4), we find the words " like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear ; which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charming ever so wisely ;" a proof that the art was formerly practised. The ser- pent usually exhibited by the Hindoo charmers is the Hooded Serpent, Cobra de Capello, (Naja lutescens of Laurenti) one
* Description of the People of India, p. 469 — 479.
346 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
Both will explain the gentleness of the serpent, which, a hundred years ago, was seen by two French travellers,* in Upper Egypt ; and which superstition represented, by turns, as an angel ; as one of the benevolent genii ; and as the demon who formerly strangled the first six hus- bands of the wife of the young Tobias.
Hindoo jugglers, says a traveller, allow themselves to be bitten by snakes ;f and when the strength of the
of the most venemous of the tribe. Music, which seems to be peculiarly delightful to that description of serpent, is the power by which they appear to be fascinated. The reptile raises itself from the ground, and keeps time by the most graceful movements and undulations of the head and body, to the notes of the flute. "When the music ceases, it sinks down, as if exhausted, in a state of almost insensibility; when it is instantly transferred to the charmer's basket. That such snakes are still poisonous is verified by a fact, related in Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, (vol. i. p. 44. vol. 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 themselves dining its continua- tion into graceful attitudes. I am of opinion that, although coated with scales, yet, the sensibility of the serpent is great, and the vibration of sound is felt over the whole body, and when the notes are harmonious, the effect is soothing. The Hindoos, from seeing the docile character of venomous serpents in the temples, believe that the Deity has condescended to adopt that form. — Ed.
* Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas in 1699. vol. i. pages 72 — 78, &c. Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas in 1715. vol. n. page 348 — 354. — Voyage fait en Egypte par 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 the 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 encounter, it is sufficient 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 contortion, 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 sinks 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 .a — Ed .
f Koempfer. Amoen. exot. page 565 et seq. — Lacépède. Hist. Nat. des Reptiles, art. du serpent à lunettes ou Nagd. a Oriental Fragments, p. 80.
348 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
others, is an assertion belonging 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 Psylli, 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 families, 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 Circè, the latter, from a virgin of Phrygia united 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.f
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 ;l and that it may be concluded
* Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vu. cap. n — A. Gell. Noct. Attic, lib. ix. cap. xii. et lib. xvi. cap. n. — Strabo. lib. xiii. — Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. i. cap. iivn. et lib. xn. cap. xxxix.
f Ascensius. Not. in A. Gell. Noct. Attic, lib. xvi. cap. n.
X Aelian. libr. de Theriac. ad Pison.
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that fraud and address had, alike, been put into practice at all times. The assertion of the physician of Pergamus is not destroyed by a well known anecdote in the history of Heliogabalus.# This Emperor made the Marsian priests collect serpents, and caused them to be thrown into the circus at the moment when the people came there in crowds. Many of them perished from the bites of these serpents, which the Marses had braved with impunity.
Travellers worthy of credence have at length arisen, and have said to us, " I have seen." Thus says Bruce, Hasselquist, and Lemprière,f and they have been con- vinced by their own eyes, that in Morocco, in Egypt, in Arabia, and above all, in Sennaar, there are many men who have such a peculiarity of habit that they disregard the bites of vipers and the sting of scorpions; and both not only handle these reptiles with impunity, but also throw them into a state of stupor. To complete their resemblance to the ancient Psylli, they assured Bruce they were born with this marvellous faculty. Others pretended to owe it to a mysterious arrangement of letters, or to some magic words, which resembled the ancient songs, used for charming serpents ; and furnished a new example of the habit so prejudicial to science, of con- cealing a physical secret, in attributing its effects to in- significant and superstitious practices.
Doubts upon this subject, if they could have existed,
* Lamprid. in Ant. Heliogabal.
Î Bruce. Travels to discover the sources of the Nile, vol. x. pages 402 — 403 — 412 — 447. Hasselquist. Voyage in the Levant. vol. i. pages 92 — 93 — 96 — 100. Lemprière, Voyage dans l'empire de Maroc et le royaume de Fez, en 1790 — 1791. pages 42 — 43.
350 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
were removed for ever at the time of the brilliant expe- dition of the French into Egypt; and the following relation is attested by thousands of eye-witnesses. The Psylli who pretended, as Bruce had related, to possess the faculty which distinguished them, went from house to house to offer their assistance to destroy serpents of every kind, which were almost common there. If we may believe them, a wonderful instinct drew them at first towards the place in which the serpents were hid- den. Furious,— howling, and foaming at the mouth, they hurried there, and then, rushing upon the reptiles, they seized and tore them asunder with their nails and teeth.
Let us place to the account of charlatanism, the howl- ings, the foaming, and the fury, in fact, all that recals the painful efforts which the Marses feigned, in repeating the songs, proper for destroying the reptiles ;f still the instinct which warned the Psylli of the presence of the serpents has in it something more real.
In the Antilles, the negroes discover by its odour a serpent which they do not see ; a power in fact owing solely to the nauseous odour which the serpent exhales.f In Egypt, the same tact, formerly possessed is still enjoyed by men, brought up to it from their infancy, and born, as with an assumed hereditary gift, to hunt serpents, and to discover them even at a distance too great for the effluvia to be perceptible to the dull organs of an Euro- pean. The principal fact above all others, the faculty of rendering dangerous animals powerless, merely by touch-
* Venas intendens omnes. Lucil. Satyr, lib. xx. f Thibaut de Chanvallpn. Voyage à la Martinique.
INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS. 351
ing them, remains well verified ; and we shall, perhaps, never understand better the nature of this secret cele- brated in antiquity, and preserved to our time, by the most ignorant of men.*
Some reflections on this subject will not, perhaps, seem here out of place.
The senses of animals resemble our own, but the re- semblance is not complete ; we cannot perceive some sub- stances which affect them strongly ; and they do not seem differently affected by those which appear to us the most dissimilar. This is true of the sense of smelling, f The dog who possesses so exquisite a nose, so susceptible of delicate impressions, of which nothing can give us a correct idea ; — the dog seems to make no difference in the pleasure derived from a sweet perfume and a foetid or
* It is extraordinary to find an individual so little credulous as our author, respecting circumstances of a marvellous character, believing the possibility of rendering poisonous serpents powerless, merely by touching them. If we can believe the existence of such a power, upon what ground can we venture to deny the reality of any apparent miracle, which we may see, or read of, however, contrary to the course of nature ? The fangs of serpents are equally defensive and offensive weapons ; and as the instinct of the reptile leads him to regard man as his enemy ; it is not likely that he would submit to his control, unless as the result of a long- course of training, which is the most probable explanation of the phenomenon mentioned in the text. I cannot credit the possi- bility of such an effect being produced upon newly caught ser- pents, utter strangers to the juggler ; and, therefore, the perform- ance must be placed amongst the numerous other feats, which attest the high degree of perfection in the deceptive art, to which these serpent tamers have attained. — En.
f Aelian. de Nat. Anim. lib. vi. cap. xxxin.
352 INFLUENCE OVER ANIMALS.
an infectious odour. So marked a difference existing between our sensations and those experienced by animals, explains why they may be acted upon by causes which are inadequate to affect the senses of men. At Rome, dogs never entered the temple of Hercules ; the smell of the club, which the God had, formerly, left at the door, was sufficient, after fourteen centuries, to banish them from it.# The priests, no doubt, were careful to renew, from time to time, the odour which perpetuated the miracle, and which was not apparent to the sense of men. Albertus Magnusf possessed a stone which attracted serpents. If any part of this tale could be true, we should attribute it to an analogous cause: reptiles, like many insects, are susceptible of being much affected by odorous emanations.
Galen had, I think, been deceived by a false de- claration, which the Marses and the Psylli had made
* Solinus. cap. n.
f Albertus the Great, or Magnus, the word Groat, his family name, the Dutch for Great, being thus Latinized, was a Dominican, born in Swabia ; and who, after he had been made Bishop of Ratisbon, abdicated, and returned as a plain monk to his convent at Cologne, where he died in 1282, in his 77th year. His Historia Animalium is the most remarkable of his works. Numerous prodigies have been attributed by the multitude to him : among others, that he made an earthenware head that could answer questions ! Thomas Aquinas is said to have been so terrified when he saw it, that he broke it in pieces ; upon which the mechanist exclaimed, " There goes the labour of thirty years !"a If the apparent speaking of this head, and similar speaking heads, was not the result of ven- triloquism, no idea can be formed of the means employed to effect the prodigy — Ed.
1 Brewster on Natural Magic, p. 159.
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for the better concealment of their secret, when he says that they owed their power over serpents to the habit of nourishing themselves with the flesh of vipers and venomous reptiles.* Hiny, Aelian, Silius, Italicus, have more correctly ascribed it to the employment of an odorous substance which stupified the serpents, and with which it appeared their enemies rubbed their bodies.f This proceeding inspired the Psylli with so much confidence, that they did not hesitate to expose new-born infants to the bites of serpents, under the plea of assuring themselves of their legitimacy ;j or
* Galian. De Art. Curator, lib. n. cap. xi.
f " Ut odore sopirent eos (serpentes.)" Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vn. cap. ii. The same author observes, that the Ophiogènes of the isle of Cyprus, above all, exhaled, in spring, a strong poisonous odour. Lib. xxviii. cap. in. Aelian. De Nat. Anim. lib. xn. cap. xxxix. et lib. xvi. cap. xxvn.
"Et somnum tacto misisse Chelydro (SU. Italic, lib. v.
verse 354).
" et Chelydris cantare soporem,
" Vipereum que herbis hebetare et carmine dentem." (idem, lib.
vin. vers. 496— 497. An impostor caused himself to be bitten in public by Asps : Aelian thinks that he used a beverage prepared to preserve himself from the consequences of the bite. But this could only be an artifice destined to hide the true secret.
X The Psylli never divulged to their wives the secret. " Mulier enim. Psylla esse non potest." (Xiphilin. in August. — Aelian. De Nat. Anim. lib. i. cap. lvii.) Their modern disciples have not imitated their reserve. Hasselquist (vol. i. p. 96 — 97) mentions a woman who, under his eyes, rendered serpents completely powerless.
VOL. I. A A
354 INFLUENCE OVER SERPENTS.
rather, in accordance with their suspicions, to destroy the presumed fruits of the adulterer. Bruce assured us that the secret of the Egyptians and Arabs, in bearing the bites of serpents with impunity, consists in bathing them- selves in a decoction of herbs and roots, the nature of which they carefully conceal. Forskhal informs us, that the Egyptians charm serpents with a Bitter-wort, an Aristolochia, with the species of which he was not ac- quainted. According to Jacquin, the aristolochia an- guicida is the plant which is employed by the indige- nous tribes of America* for the same purpose.
At this day, when the traces of the emigrations, which had conducted people from the plains of Tartary into equinoctial America have been discovered, it is not surprising to find this secret propagated in the New World. After being convinced of its great antiquity, comparing the narrations of modern travellers with those of ancient historians, it is much more astonishing that we never re-discovered it in Hindostan. It existed there, in fact, from time immemorial.
By the side of every secret of this kind, we are almost
* Hasselquist. Voyage dans le Levant, vol. i. p. 100. — This species of Aristolachia is a twining plant, with oblong, sharp- pointed, cordate leaves, with solitary heart-shaped stipules sur- rounding the stem, and an erect dilated corolla, with a lanceolate, somewhat truncated lip. It is a native of Mexico, where the juice of the root of the plant, mixed with saliva, and called Gti-Gtii, is poured into the wound made by the bite of a serpent ; and, after being left undisturbed for some time, ensures the safety of the bit- ten person. Such is the description of its use and its effects by Jacquin. — Ed.
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certain to find some custom which has so far rendered the discovery of it necessary, and to which, on the contrary, it owes, in part, its birth. In Hindustan, in order to ascertain the truth of an accusation, " they throw a hooded serpent, called Naga,* into a deep pot of earth, into which they let fall a ring, a seal, or a piece of money, which the accused is obliged to take up with his hand. If the serpent bite him, he is declared guilty ; and, on the contrary, if not bitten,
* The Naia tripudians, the Cobra de Capello, or Hooded Ser- pent of the Asiatic Portuguese. It is characterized by the expan- sive neck which covers the head like a hood ; and, when thus dilated, displays upon its upper part two oval disks, united by an arch, which produce the resemblance of a pair of old fashioned spectacles laid upon a beautifully ribbed and dotted ground. Its length is from six to fifteen feet, and its general colour brown. It is the most venomous of the Indian serpents, and its bite is mor- tal ; but, nevertheless, it is rendered docile by music, by being pampered with milk and sugar, and by kind treatment. It is an object of worship in some of the Hindoo temples, and is stated by the priests to be the form which the Deity occasionally assumes. When enraged, and about to strike, it raises its head and part of its body, and dilates the hood, whilst the rest of the body is coiled up on the ground to give force to the spring. Dr. John Davy, in his Account of Ceylon, mentions having seen a hen bitten by one of them : it kept its hold for two or three minutes, and was then shaken off by Dr, Davy. " The hen, which at first seemed to be little affected, died eight hours after she was bitten ;" but so long a time seldom elapses between the bite and the death of the animal which is struck. The poison, when recent, is colourless, limpid, and in consistence resembles a solution of gum-arabic in water ; it is acrid, and loses much of its virulence after being kept. — Ed.
A A 2
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innocent.*" It was thus in Egypt, that the sacred Asps, the intelligent ministers of the vengeance of Isis, gave death to evil, and respected good men.f
* Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 473. We find that the greatest part of the Hindoo ordeals are equally used in Pegu, among the Burmese.
t Aelian. De Nat. Animal, lib. x. cap. xxxi.
END OF VOL. I.
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THE OCCULT SCIENCES,
VOL. II.
E OCCULT SCIENCES.
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WITH NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE, EXPLANATORY, AND CRITICAL
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" Non igitur oportet nos magicis illusionibus uti, cum potestas philosophica doceat operari quod sufficit." — Roc. Bacon, De seer. oper. art. et nat. c. v.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II.
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CONTENTS
SECOND VOLUME.