ON consulting this passage, in the EXPOSITORY INDEX, it will be seen that we regretted the scantiness of that information communicated by Mr. Forskall on the subject of the bætan, or peten, as we suppose, of this passage; but, though his information be scanty, if it may serve to identify the creature intended, it has yielded very great advantages beyond what we possess in investigating the present subject, wherein we are surrounded by difficulties on all sides, and must grope our way out of them as well

as we can.

In considering the context we found reason to suppose, that the word rendered den or cavern, was of a dual import; and I cannot help suspecting, that the word tjephoni is dual also, and signifies a pair, or couple, of these serpents.

We shall endeavour to combine what information Scripture gives us respecting these tjephoni.

1st, Our text says, "They shall not hurt nor destroy, corrupt, in all my holy mountain." This corruption I attribute to the tjephoni of this passage, for such seems to be the order of the words in their reference, and, no doubt, we must seek a serpent whose bite produces a corruption of the fluids, &c. in the subjects bitten.

2dly, In Prov. xxiii. 32. we read, "Wine shall bite as a serpent, nahash, and shall sting like tjephoni." The word rendered sting signifies to spread, diffuse its poison; so LXX and Vulgate. It is used with singular propriety in this passage; as it imports to unfold, develop, bring to light, or into activity, somewhat which before was concealed, secluded, or latent such is, certainly, the poison of a serpent, which is usually quiescent, and concealed in its fangs ; but, when those are in action, a wound apparently insignificant, diffuses after a while the most direful effects throughout the whole frame of that person who has been so unhappy as to have received their at

tack.

In Isai. xiv. 29. we read, that" From the root of the serpent, nahash, shall come forth tjepho:" [a cockatrice, English Tr.] It is clear that a serpent of a worse kind than the nahash is intended in this passage. In chap. lix. 5. we read, that the tjephouni produce eggs; i.e. are oviparous. "They hatch the eggs of the cockatrice; he that eateth of their eggs dieth or if one of these eggs be crushed, it breaketh forth into a viper:" [nyes aphoeh.] This is a very remarkable passage: it implies, 1st, that serpents' eggs may be mistaken for those of birds, hens, &c. and may be eaten under such mistake; 2dly, That it was well known in antiquity, that some venomous serpents were oviparous; 3dly, I think, too, the

there is no effectual charming, whispering; and they shall bite, bite off, devour you, piecemeal. This implies the action of a large creature.

It should be asked, whether these words tjepho, tjephoni, and tjephouni, notwithstanding the differences of their spelling, are the same word, or different words? It would much ease their natural history if they described different creatures. Otherwise, we must unite the characters of a large and poisonous reptile, which is oviparous, and beyond enchant

ment.

I must further take the liberty of querying, at least, whether we are confined to Syria and to Egypt, in our investigation of this serpent? As Abraham, &c. the fathers of the Hebrew nation, came originally from near to India, may not the knowledge of certain formidable Eastern reptiles have obtained among their posterity, and have been preserved by them? and further still may not that passage of the prophet, on which we are commenting, be a referential description of the original Paradise, time past, as well as a description of happy times expected? time future. If so, possibly there is some traditionary memorial of this serpent still extant, though much further east than Judea. If we may connect these ideas, the fatal naja, or cobra di capello, of the Portuguese, bids fairest to be this dreaded cockatrice. That this serpent contains the most fatal poison is well known, I cannot discover certainly whether it be oviparous or not; but the evidence for that fact is presumptive: all serpents issue from an egg; and the difference between the oviparous and the viviparous is, that in the former, the eggs are laid before the fœtus is mature; in the latter, the fœtus bursts the egg, while yet in the womb of its mother.

Ray says, all serpents, even those distinguished as viviparous, ought to be regarded as oviparous, though of a different class from those which produce eggs to be hatched by adventitious warmth. Seger mentions, assisting a serpent to lay her eggs. Bartholin dissected serpents' eggs; which, he says, are only hatched in the open air, and fail in a place too close, or too hot. If the eggs of serpents are broken, the little serpent is found rolled up in a spiral form. It appears motionless during some time; but if the term of its exclusion be near, it opens its jaws, inhales at several respirations the air of the atmosphere, its lungs fill, it stretches itself, and, moved by this impetus, it begins to crawl.

The eggs of the ringed snake have given occasion to a fable, which says, that cocks can lay eggs; but that these eggs always produce serpents: that the cock does not hatch them, but the warmth of their situation answers the purposes of incubation. The eggs of this serpent are the size of those of a pigeon; she lays eighteen or twenty. The eggs of the great boa have but two or three inches in their longest diameter. As an instance, that the eggs of poisonous serpents do not always burst in the womb of their parent, we may mention the cerastes, of which we have an account of its laying in sand four or five eggs, the size of those of a pigeon. The count De la Cepede supposes, some of this kind may be oviparous, others viviparous; but he wishes for further information.

What appears to be credible, and has been affirmed by one who says, he was a speciator of the fact, in the instance of the cerastes, may, by parity of reason, be admitted of the naja; and as we have seen how nearly the eggs of one serpent resemble those of birds, we need not be surprised that those of another are spoken of by the prophet, as capable of being mistaken for wholesome viands, and of being unwarily used as food: such, says the prophet, would prove poisonous; while such as are crushed would produce a serpent. And so Labat tells us, that he crushed some of the eggs of a large female serpent, and found several young in each egg; which were no sooner freed from the shell, than they coiled themselves into attitudes of attack, and were ready to spring on whatever came in their way: such is nature in these reptiles !

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE NAJA.

The beauty of colours has been granted to this serpent, which is one of the most venomous of the Oriental countries. The sight of him is far from inspiring fear in those who view him, and who know not the activity of his poison; he is beheld with pleasure and admiration, and while the glitter of his scales, and the splendour which enlivens his colours, attract notice, the singular conformation of his figure fixes attention. On the neck of this serpent is a bending line, which resembles the form of a pair of spectacles: and this has been an occasion of giving to the naja the name of the "spectacle serpent."

The naja is of a yellow colour, more or less reddish or ash-coloured, according to the age and strength of the individual, and to the season of the year. Above the swelling part of the neck is a broad band of deepish brown. The beautiful yellow which shines on the back of this naja, is lighter under the belly, where it becomes whitish, sometimes slightly tinged with red. The lines which form the spectacles on its neck are whitish, but are bordered on each side with a deep colour. The eyes are lively and full of fire; the scales are oval, flat, and very long, attached

to the skin only by part of their circumference; and on the upper part of the neck they do not touch each other, but leave the skin bare. It seems, that this serpent can very sensibly erect his scales. The skin, where it appears, is less shining than the scales; which being large and flat strongly reflect the light, and often appear like so many reflecting facets, disposed in an orderly manner, and glittering with the most resplendent gold; especially when enlightened by the rays of the sun.

The swelling of the neck in this creature is formed by an elongation of the ribs at this part; but, besides this, the naja can further swell and augment at his pleasure a loose kind of membrane, which covers these long ribs, and which Kempfer compares to a kind of wings. More especially when he is irritated, he expands this membrane to its full extent, and then raises himself up, carrying his head horizontally, so that this membrane forms as it were a kind of hood behind his head, from whence he has been called the "hooded serpent ;" and some, fancying this hood had the resemblance of a crown, have called him the "crowned serpent." The female has not the spectacles on the neck, but she has the expansible membrane; she glitters with the same golden colours, and has also been called the "crowned serpent." The mistakes of naturalists have sometimes made her a different species.

The naja is ordinarily three or four feet in length; but some are seven or eight feet. The naja is ferocious; unless immediate antidotes be administered, his bite is fatal; the party bit expires in convulsions, and a GANGRENE spreads around the place wounded, which it is hardly possible to heal: in short, of all serpents this is most dreaded by the Indians, who go barefooted.

When this terrible reptile means to spring on any person, he raises himself up with boldness, his eyes sparkle with tremendous brightness, he expands his membraneous hood in token of his rage, opens his mouth, and darts forward with rapidity, showing at the same time the points of his venomous fangs.

But, notwithstanding his fatal weapons, the Indian mountebanks have acquired the skill of rendering these serpents an entertaining spectacle; the like is now done by the jugglers of Egypt, and was formerly practised by those of other countries also; the psylli of Cyrene, the ophiogena of Cyprus, handle without fear, and tease with impunity, large serpents, even venomous, perhaps, by seizing them strongly near the neck, thereby avoiding their bite, and then not merely controlling, but absolutely devouring them.

Those who carry the naja about as a show, pretend to be preserved from his sting by the power of a root which they carry with them; but Kempfer reports a method of much greater security, which consists in depriving this reptile of his venom every day

or two, by making him bite pieces of stuff, or other soft matter, which imbibe the poison from his fangs, and, by clearing them, deprives them of their malignity. They then keep him from food, especially from moist food, till after he has played those tricks, which his masters command him. It must be added, that other Indians, to deprive this and other serpents of the power to bite fatally, break out their fangs from their mouth; by which operation, if the bags of ven.om which lie in the roof of the mouth continue to secrete their accustomed fluid, they have no teeth for making wounds, nor channel for conveying poison into such wounds, if they could make them.

The dances of the naja are produced by the art of his master, who, taking the reptile out of his cage or basket, irritates him, by presenting a stick, or perhaps his fist; the serpent instantly rises on his tail, spreads his hood, briskly shakes himself, and prepares to attack this enemy of his peace. His master, sing ing all the while, moves his fist, first to one side, then to the other, which being followed by corresponding motions of the serpent, gives him the air of what is called dancing; and this exercise continues, till his master, perceiving the reptile becomes truly enraged, withdraws his hand, ceases to sing, and the fatigued naja lays himself down in his box, coiled up for repose. Or, sometimes the naja will only continue these motions for a certain time; of which the juggler being aware, he contrives to conclude the dance before that time is expired. The usual time is five The usual time is five or six minutes. The manner of educating the naja for this exercise, is, by oversetting the vase which contains him, and when he is about to escape, catching him with a stick; irritated by this, he turns about, and would dart on his keeper; but his keeper being aware, dexterously presents his vase to receive this attack, against which the creature bruises his nostrils; this repeated makes him cautious, and this caution being strengthened by habit, he retains the same fear when a stick or the fist is presented to him, toward which he always turns his eyes, but fears to strike it.

The naja has been the object of veneration in the most beautiful countries of the East; particularly on the coast of Malabar. The dread of his envenomed fangs, the desire of keeping him at a distance from habitations and families, perhaps formerly prompted people to carry provisions for these reptiles to their holes, that they might have no inducement to visit houses, &c. in search of food. The same dread probably occasioned the placing of their images, as symbols, in temples; together with that entreaty and solicitation of them to depart without doing mischief, which is customary in the East, whenever they happen to enter a dwelling. Far from defending themselves against such intruders, far from thinking of destroying them, the Malabarians send for a bramin, and engage him to beg the favour of their guest to de

part; in which undertaking they spare neither exhortations, entreaties, nor prostrations.

It now becomes our duty to compare this history of the naja, with the Scripture accounts of that serpent which our translators render "cockatrice;" and this we must attempt, under the idea that tjepho, tjephoni, and tjephouni, are the same word. The word tjepho is usually taken to signify," the darter," a serpent which darts itself: but this is so common to serpents, that it distinguishes no one. Bochart derives it from hissing, and it is called in Latin sibilus, "the hisser;" but this also is so common to serpents, that it distinguishes no one. I am well aware of the strong difference between the words tjepho and tjepheh in the Hebrew; yet, I cannot help wishing we might refer these tjephoni to a root, tjepheh, which signifies to spread over, or a covering, which would well describe the hood of this serpent; and further, in its other forms this root implies to survey, to look around, to watch round about, which is precisely the action of the naja when he raises himself to strike, and when he watches the motions of the fist presented to him while dancing.

There is another thing to be observed: the prophet says, that out of the egg of the tjephouni breaketh forth a viper, aphoeh. It would be the strangest thing imaginable, and utterly repugnant to common sense, that an egg of one kind of serpent should produce another kind of serpent: no such instance can occur in nature, any more than an egg of one kind of bird, can produce a young bird of a kind different from its parent.

The word aphoeh belongs to the root phoeh, the A being prefixed; and the EH also, though radical is omissible, says Parkhurst, which leaves PHO, strictly taken, as the apparent root. This word seems to me to be varied in one instance into APHO, by the prefix A, in another instance into TJеPHо by prefixing TJ. We are led to the import of the root phoch by the Arabic root phoih, to swell with blowing or puffing; to blow with the mouth puffed out; can a more apt description be given of the action of the naja on its hood? which it puffs up, dilates, swells; and this swelling seems, from the passages usually adduced, to be the true meaning of the word, rather than puffing; unless we take that word in rather a vulgar sense, puffing up, as a bladder with wind. Vide Isai. xli. 24. compare Job xi. 20. It would then make a very good sense, if we understand the prophet as saying, that "out of an egg of the greatly swelling serpent shall come forth a young one, swelling like its parent." Otherwise, we may refer, as is usually done, this aphoeh to the viper tribe in general; or to those of poisonous fangs : i.e. meaning, from the egg of the naja, one of the most poisonous of the viper tribe, shall come forth a young viper, poisonous also."

Against this it may be said, and must be admitted, that the viper does not lay eggs; so that we must

either take aphoeh to mean the viper, or poisonous tribe, generally, of which some do lay eggs; or, we must take it restrictively to such of these poisonous reptiles as are oviparous, which may be the character of the naja, though I do not perceive that that question is determined; yet I have spoken with a gentleman from India, who, though he could not af firm it from actual observation, had always believed it.

I have said, that I guess that the prophet uses the word tjephoni in a dual form, implying a pair, or male and female; and I recollect that Vaillant tells us, in his Travels in Africa, that he met with a pair of them, of which he shot one, the other escaped. Moreover, if the kooper kapel be, as I think it is, the cobra di capello, or naja, then we have another instance of their going in couples, in vol. i. p. 208. of his first Travels; where he gives an account of a pair of these serpents creeping under the legs of his hostess in her own house his description agrees perfectly: "their rage was kindled, their eyes became inflamed, and raising their necks, and hissing in a most furious manner, they attempted to dart upon us." "The kooper capel is observable at a distance, in consequence of its size and vivid colours," vol. ii. p. 382.

The glittering brilliancy of this serpent is perfectly agreeable to what we have supposed might be the meaning of the word meauruth, literally, flashes of light, resplendencies, as used by the prophet; and we find that the showy appearance of the naja, which is very likely to attract the notice of an infant, is remarked in strong language by travellers. Vide ExPOSITORY INDEX, in loc.

The greatest difficulty, at first sight, against accepting the naja as the tjephon is, that it is said, that serpent shall not be tamed, but shall resist enchantment, whereas the naja is in some sort domesticated. Observe, 1st, that though the naja be managed by human contrivance and art, yet it is not tamed, but would as readily bite its master as any other. 2dly, That we may take the prophet to mean, "though this kind of serpent be occasionally subdued, yet those I send shall be proof against such management; more venomous, more ferocious: of the same species, but superior in powers and malignity." 3dly, The word lachash rendered enchantment, signifies whispering had a more powerful word been used, this particular would have been proportionally difficult; but, in truth, whispering, as it concerns enchantment, does not appear to be the summit of art, or a procedure of prodigious efficacy. However, I think the second observation may be the nearest to the proper sense; and this, if admitted, relieves what we have proposed from its greatest impediment.

This subject may give rise to some further inquiries: 1st, It appears in FRAGMENT, No. 445, that this naja is the serpent, which is represented as biting

the Indian deity Chrishna by the heel; which, as we have hinted above, is an occurrence but too credible where the inhabitants walk barefooted; yet, over which Chrishna ultimately triumphs. Conjecture has referred this metaphorical combat and victory to a tradition of the first great promise made to mankind, in Paradise. [Between Kedem and India, according to the Puranas.]

2dly, But, more expressly to our immediate subject. We have alluded, in FRAGMENT, No. 279, to an Indian allegory, perfectly correspondent with that of the prophet Isaiah. I beg leave to repeat a part of it. "To make myself understood, observe, Ist, That the Indian deity Chrishna is represented in plate iii. of Mr. Maurice's History of Indostan, as playing on a flute, whose magic melody unites in one peaceful group, a young ox, a prodigious tiger, and that mortal serpent the cobra di capello, which will furnish us an ample subject at some distant opportunity. These all listen to the tranquillizing notes of his instrument; the serpent raises himself up, but forgets his venom; the tiger looks earnestly to the placid god, in silent admiration, and growls no enmity against his companions; and the young steer feels no alarm at his naturally bloodthirsty associate. I infer that a power is denoted in this instance, whose influence is capable of harmonizing all nature, of which this is a pictorial representation."

A further allusion is there also made to Virgil's famous fourth eclogue; observing, that the poetry of that eclogue may be Virgil's, but that the expectations are probably Oriental. And I think we may confirm this conjecture, by remarking a singular insertion, not to call it a slip, which perhaps, unawares to the poet, betrays this remote origin:

Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni

Occidet; Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum. We have elsewhere hinted, that Syria, Assyria, Sereid, &c. are taken very uncertainly among ancient writers: but the eastern part of the Persian empire, the Kedem of Scripture, seems to us to be sometimes meant by these names. [Vide on the Map of Paradise, Gen. iii. plate.] This hint places the empoisoned herb in Assyria, Kedem, also, together with the serpent, which the nascent deity, the nova progenies is to slay. That this idea may not appear singular, I quote Heyne's note: "Amomum fruticis genus Indici; quod tamen quale fuerit parum constat. Plinii et Dioscoridis ap. Martin. et Salmas. ad Solin. p. 284. qui amomum fere de omni aromate sincero dictum docet." "Assyrium vero, cum Armeniæ et Media ea planta esset. On the whole I infer, that we risk little in considering the naja of the Indians, the tjephuon of the prophet, and the "fatal serpent" of the Latin poet, as natives of the same country, and, in all probability, the very same reptile.

3dly, As I cannot find any winged serpent in natural history; I would therefore observe, that Kempfer has compared the hood of the naja to wings: may a similar comparison be the foundation of the "winged serpents" in our public version? Some have called him the "crowned serpent;" has this been the foundation of the reguli, or "king serpents" of antiquity? If so, it leads us at once to the creature meant by tjephon, for this has been frequently translated regulus.

It is time to close this discussion: the reader will scarcely believe the labour it has cost us. It is possible, even now, that some minor particular may have escaped us, notwithstanding our diligent endeavours to the contrary. If it should be so, and if that should be competent to the decision of the question, which among the serpent tribe is the dreadful cockatrice of our version? we shall be glad to see its application, and to congratulate that learning and skill by which it may be discovered and directed.