at the Isle of Banka, the Chinese reckon the bile of the great python a precious remedy against many diseases.* I pass over the use made in the middle ages of different parts of the snake, to each of which was attributed salutary qualities; in our days they are wholly laid aside. It is only in recent times that those experiments have been instituted on the effects of the bites of snakes, which we have related elsewhere: the ancients, as many people still do, reputed indiscriminately all serpents venomous; they placed the seat of their deadly weapon in the tongue, or in the end of the tail, and ascribed to the bite of each species, according to their fancy, a different train of mischiefs.+ Civilization is unable to destroy these errors, and one is astonished to hear them repeated by well-informed persons; to see republished in several works the story of the three sons of a colonist, successively dying at long intervals, of a wound caused by the fang of a rattlesnake remaining in the boot of their father, who had first died of the bite: a story which the inhabitants of Surinam, as well as those of the United States, are pleased to repeat to strangers passing through their country. One is astonished to hear of sea-snakes of monstrous size; of boas from forty to fifty feet long that attack men, oxen, tigers, and swallow them whole, after having covered them with a frothy saliva: absurdities that bring to recollection those fables of winged monsters or dragons, of which the mythology of the ancient people of Asia has preserved the remembrance, and of which the wayward fancy of the Chinese has multiplied the forms. What shall we say on reading in modern works of great reputation, descriptions of the marvellous effects produced on serpents by music; when travellers of talent tell us they have seen young snakes retreat into the mouth of their mother, every time that they were menaced with danger! Unfortunately naturalists, in classing such fables with the number of facts, have often embellished with them their descriptions, and thus have contributed to give them universal acceptation. * Olivier, Lund en Zeetogten, ii. p. 447. ↑ See Lucan, Pharsalia, ix. 937; Nicander, de heriaca. Who, for instance, will not be struck with the description which Latreille and Lacepede have drawn up of the habits of the boa, and of other serpents of great size! How many qualities have not these philosophers attributed to those beings, which have never existed, except in their own imaginations! Every one has heard of the pretended magic power which serpents are said to exercise over small animals, when they wish to catch them: there are few works on natural history which have not treated of this phenomenon, contradicted by some, and defended by others, without their being able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. I shall hot here repeat the absurdities which travellers have written on this head, and which are sometimes extremely curious:* suffice it to say, that these tales, of which the traces may be found in several classic authors, are particularly in vogue in North America, while they are unknown in the East Indies and in Europe, countries rich in serpents of every species. This observation is too curious not to merit some attention, as it shews how a fact, true or supposed, may be so spread as to become popular. Many causes might have given rise to the origin of the pretended power of fascination of serpents. It is true that most animals appear absolutely ignorant of the danger which menaces them, when they find themselves in the presence of enemies as cruel as serpents; we often see them walk over the bodies of those reptiles, pick at their head, bite them, or lie down familiarly beside them: but we need not also deny, that an animal, unexpectedly surprised, attacked by so formidable an adversary, seeing his menacing attitude, his movements performed with such celerity, may be so seized with fear, as, at the first moment, to be deprived of its faculties, and rendered incapable of avoiding the fatal blow, which is inflicted at the moment when it perceives itself assailed. Mr Barton Smith, in a memoir expressly written to refute all that has been advanced on the fascination of the rattlesnake, re * See Levaillant 2de Voyage, i. p. 93; Barrow, Trav. p. 120. lates several instances which prove that birds do not shew themselves afraid, except when the serpent approaches their nests to seize their young. Then one may see the terrified parents fly around their enemy, uttering plaintive cries, just as our warblers do when any one stops in the vicinity of their nests. It may also be, that the animals which it is pretended had been seen fluttering around the snake, and at last falling into his mouth, have been already wounded by his poisonfangs; a supposition which perfectly corresponds to the way in which venomous serpents master their prey. Many treesnakes seize their prey by twisting their slender tails around their victim: Dampier* has several times been a witness of this spectacle: observing a bird flapping its wings, and uttering cries, without flying, this traveller perceived that the poor bird was locked in the folds of a snake, when he attempted to lay hold of it. Russel† presented one day a fowl to a Dipsas, and the bird in a short time gave signs of death; not conceiving how the bite of a snake not poisonous, and so small, could produce such an effect, he carefully examined the fowl, and found the folds of the tail of the snake around the neck of the bird, which would have perished, had he not disengaged it. Many birds of small size are accustomed to pursue birds of prey, and other enemies of their race, or to fly about the place where the object of their hatred lies concealed: there is reason to believe that this phenomenon, known in Europe to every observer, also takes place in exotic regions; and perhaps this is also one of the circumstances which have contributed to the invention of the stories which have been related of the power of fascination in serpents. But I have too long interrupted the progress of my work, in exposing the numerous errors which have disfigured one of the most beautiful parts of natural science; and I believe I ought to omit the fables concerning the basilisk, the hybrid snakes produced by the congress of eels and serpents, and the other tales as strange as absurd, which are still believed by many persons. Yet, before terminating this division of my * Voyages, iii. p. 275. Russel, i. p. 20. work, I shall notice the magic power which certain persons pretend to be able to exercise over snakes. This pretended art, which formed at all times, and among various nations, the occupation of a particular caste, consists in certain tricks which the serpents execute at the will of the conjurors, who have trained them expressly for the purpose: as they chiefly make use of the Naja tripudians and Naja haje, I have, in these two articles, stated the manner in which they employ serpents in those tricks.* Such conjurors exist now in the Indian Peninsula, and in Egypt; those of the latter country boast themselves to be the descendants of the Psylli,+-a tribe who inhabited ancient Lybia and India, and were celebrated for their skill in curing the bites of snakes, and securing themselves against them. Another people inhabiting Italy, but less known, were the Marsi;§ we know still less of the Ophigenoi, whose country was Greece. Among the more civilized people of Europe, persons who pretend to possess the art of fascinating serpents, are very rarely to be met: they consist most frequently of ignorant charlatans, who impose on the lower orders, seeking to alarm them by playing familiarly with serpents, while they are only thus familiar with the innocuous. M. Lenz has given in his work¶ the history and tragic end of one of those pretended conjurors, who paid with his life for a temerity, founded on absolute ignorance of the nature of vipers. * [The author here alludes to the descriptive part of his work, not yet translated.] ↑ Geoffroy, Descrip. del Egypte, xxiv., p. 88. ‡ Plin. vii. 2; Ælian, 16, 37, 17, 27; Lucan, ix. 891. Consult also the paper of Mr Spalding, entitled Uber die Zauberei durch Schlangen, and inserted in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, 1804-11, Historico-philosophical Class, p. 9. § Virgil, En. vii. 750; Silius Italicus, viii. 495. Plinius, vii. 2; Ælian, xii. 39. Page 192. Notices of Earthquake-shocks felt in Great Britain, and especially in Scotland, with inferences suggested by these notices as to the causes of the Shock. By DAVID MILNE, Esq., F.R.S.E., M.W.S., F.G.S., &c. Communicated by the Author. (Continued from Vol. XXXV. page 159.) Having now fully detailed the phenomena attending the shock of 23d October 1839, and suggested the inferences as to the probable cause of such shocks, which these phenomena seem to warrant, we shall proceed to describe shocks of a subsequent date, offering also, in regard to them, such remarks as may be suggested by the effects observed. * 8th January 1840.-The shocks under this date, as felt at COмRIE, appear from the Register kept there to have been very slight. On the same day, about 10 P. M., a shock was felt in IRELAND, which, perhaps, it is not out of place to notice. An account of it was transmitted by Mr Paterson of Belfast, from which the following extracts are made. "The shock was most felt in the barony of Innishowen. This barony, which is the northern extremity of the county of Donegal, forms a peninsula, lying between Lough Foyle on the east, and Lough Swilly on the west. The sound by which the shock was accompanied, was heard in the parish of Cloncha, 20 miles north of the city of Londonderry; and also in the several parishes of Moville, Culdaff, Donagh, Clonmany, and Fahan. The duration of the shock is estimated at about 20". The vibration of the ground was very sensibly felt, especially in high and rocky situations, and but slightly in low and marshy grounds. It is compared to the kind of tremor caused by the passing of a loaded cart. No building of any kind was injured by it, nor was any wall cracked or thrown down. It seemed to proceed from E. to W. or from NE. to SW. The shock at Malin is stated to have been heaviest' at the commencement and termination; perhaps, by a well-known law of mo * See page 85. |