for dressing our victuals, it was seldom we had fewer than half a dozen of these vipers, who burnt themselves to death by approaching the embers. "Galen, speaking of the aspic in the great city of Alexandria, says, I have seen how speedily they, the aspics, occasioned death. Whenever any person is condemned to die, whom they wish to end quickly and without torment, they put the viper to his breast, and suffering him there to creep a little, the man is presently killed. Pausanias speaks of particular serpents that were to be found in Arabia among the balsam-trees, several of which I procured both alive and dead, when I brought the tree from Beder Hunein; but they were still the same species of serpent, only some from sex, and some from want of age, had not the horns, though in every other respect they could not be mistaken. Ibn Sina, called by Europeans Avicenna, has described this animal very exactly; he says it is frequent in Shem, that is the country about and south of Damascus, and also in Egypt; and he makes a very good observation on their manners; that they do not go or walk straight, but move by contracting themselves.

"The general size of the cerastes, from the extremity of its snout to the end of its tail, is from 13 to 14 inches. Its head is triangular, very flat, but higher near where it joins the neck than toward the

nose.

"The cerastes has sixteen small immoveable teeth, and in the upper jaw two canine teeth, hollow, crooked inward, and of a remarkably fine polish, white in colour, inclining to bluish. Near one fourth of the bottom is strongly fixed in the upper jaw, and folds back like a clasp knife, the point inclining inward; and the greatest part of the tooth is covered with a green soft membrane, not drawn tight, but, as it were, wrinkled over it. Immediately above this is a slit along the back of the tooth, which ends nearly in the middle of it, where the tooth curves inwardly. From this aperture, I apprehend, that it sheds its poison, not from the point, where, with the best glasses, I never could perceive an aperture, so that the tooth is not a tube, but hollow only half way; the point being for making the incision, and by its pressure occasioning the venom in the bag at the bottom of the fang to rise in the tooth, and spill itself through the slit into the wound.

"The animal is supposed to eat but seldom, or only when it is with young.

"The poison is very copious for so small a creature; it is fully as large as a drop of laudanum, dropped from a phial by a careful hand. Viewed through a glass, it appears not perfectly transparent or pellucid. I should imagine it has other reservoirs than the bag under the tooth; for I compelled it to scratch eighteen pigeons upon the thigh as quick as possible, and they all died nearly in the same interval of time; but I confess the danger attending the dissection of

"Of the incantation of serpents, there is no doubt of its reality. of its reality. The Scriptures are full of it. All that have been in Egypt have seen as many different instances as they chose. Some have doubted that it was a trick, and that the animals so handled had been trained, and then disarmed of their power of hurting; and, fond of the discovery, they have rested themselves upon it, without experiment, in the face of all antiquity. But I will not hesitate to aver, that I have seen at Cairo, and this may be seen daily without trouble or expense, a man who came from above the catacombs, where the pits of the mummy birds are kept, who has taken a cerastes with his naked hand from a number of others lying at the bottom of the tub, has put it upon his bare head, covered it with the common red cap he wears, then taken it out, put it in his breast, and tied it about his neck like a necklace; after which it has been applied to a hen, and bit it, which has died in a few minutes; and, to complete the experiment, the man has taken it by the neck, and beginning at its tail, has eaten it as one would do a carrot or a stalk of celery, without any seeming repugnance.

"I can myself vouch, that all the black people in the kingdom of Sennaar, whether Funge or Nuba, are perfectly armed against the bite of either scorpion or viper. They take the cerastes in their hands at all times, put them in their bosoms, and throw them to one another, as children do apples or balls, without having irritated them by this usage so much as to bite. The Arabs have not this secret naturally; but from their infancy they acquire an exemption from the mortal consequences attending the bite of these animals, by chewing a certain root, and washing themselves; it is not anointing; with an infusion of certain plants in water.

"I constantly observed, that however lively the viper was before, upon being seized by any of these barbarians, he seemed as if taken with sickness and feebleness, frequently shut his eyes, and never turned his mouth toward the arm of the person that held him. I asked Kittou how they came to be exempted from this mischief? He said, they were born so, ard so said the grave and respectable men among them. Many of the lighter and lower sort talked of enchantments by words and by writing; but they all knew how to prepare any person by medicines, which were decoctions of herbs and roots.

"I have seen many thus armed for a season do pretty much the same feats as those that possessed the exemption naturally; the drugs were given me, and I several times armed myself, as I thought, resolved to try the experiment, but my heart always failed me when I came to the trial." So far Mr. Bruce. The cerastes is well known under the name of "horned viper," it is effectively distinguished, by two small horns, one over each eye. It was adopted as a hieroglyphic among the Egyptians, and appears not only on obelisks, columns of temples, statues, walls of palaces, but on mummies also. Notwithstanding which, the complete history of this creature is wanting.

The horns of the cerastes are placed immediately over the eyes; each of them is planted, as it were, among the small scales which form the superior part of the orbit: its root is surrounded by scales, smaller than those of the back; and it is of a pyramidical form, each face having a groove running up it. In general appearance, it resembles a grain of barley. The general colour of the back is yellowish, heightened by irregular blotches of a deeper colour, which represent small bands, crossing it. The under part of the body is lighter. The serpent is about two feet long, says count de la Cepede. This serpent supports hunger and thirst longer than most others; but is so ravenous, that he throws himself with avidity on the small birds, and other animals on which he feeds; and as, according to Belon, his skin is capable of the greatest distension, even to double its natural size, it is not surprising that he swallows so great a quantity of food as to render digestion extremely difficult; so that he falls into a kind of lethargic slumber, during which he is easily killed.

Most authors of antiquity, and of the middle ages, thought that this was one of those serpents which could, with the greatest ease, turn themselves all manner of ways; and they report, that instead of advancing in a straight line, he always took more or less of a circuitous course to attain his object. But, whatever be the address or the swiftness of his motions, he escapes with difficulty from those eagles, or rather, perhaps, vultures, which stoop at him with exceeding rapidity; and which, for their services in ridding the country of these venomous reptiles, were considered as sacred by the Egyptians. Nevertheless, these serpents have always been considered as extremely cunning, both in escaping their enemies, and in seizing their prey: they have even been named insidious; and it is reported of them that they hide themselves in holes adjacent to the highways, and in the ruts of wheels, in order more suddenly to spring upon passengers.

Belon says, that the young of the cerastes burst their eggs in the womb of the parent; but Gesner reports, that a noble Venetian kept a female cerastes, three feet in length, during some time, which laid

four or five eggs, the size of pigeons' eggs: perhaps both ways may take place.

It is thought the cerastes was consecrated by the ancient Egyptians; for Herodotus describes serpents which answer to the character of this reptile, as being kept in a temple.

So far is abstracted from the successor to Buffon. I would only add on this last article, that as we have seen the naja worshipped in India, so the cerastes might be worshipped in Egypt, as being one of the symbols of that deity who more immediately presides over death. Vide FRAGMENT, No. 495.

It is proper now to endeavour to apply this information to a specific object. It will be seen in the EXPOSITORY INDEX, that I have thought shephiphoon, to which the tribe of Dan is compared, Gen. xlix. might be the cerastes: it is so rendered by the Vulgate. I shall, however, abstract the remarks of Michaelis, Quest. Ixii. because they manifest the importance of that information on Scripture natural history, which it is our present endeavour to promote.

The Arabs name this serpent siff, [siphon, or suphon,] and that seems not very distant from the Hebrew root of the word sififoon, or shephiphon. This serpent, or some other, but this most probably, is called by the Orientals, "the lier in ambush ;" for so both the LXX and Samaritan, who are not in the habit of copying each other, render the text in Genesis: and this appellation well agrees with the manners of the cerastes. Pliny says, that "the cerastes hides its whole body in the sand, leaving only its horns exposed; which attract birds, who suppose them to be grains of barley, till they are undeceived, too late, by the darting of the serpent upon them."

The Chaldee of Jonathan translates "heads of serpents," which seems to allude to such a story; and which may be an appellation of the cerastes. Ephraim the Syrian says, there is a kind of serpents whose heads only are seen above the ground. Prosper Alpinus thinks, that only the male has horns. Bochart thinks that the hemorrhois also has horns. On this article, we refer to Mr. Bruce, who mentions a cerastes without horns, which we may conjecture to be the hemorrhois.

As to the effects of the venom of the cerastes, the ancients say, Nicander for instance, that its bite causes but little pain; the wound hardens; blisters, filled with a dark matter, rise around it; the upper part of the feet, then the knees, experience a disagreeable weariness: some add, that violent vertigoes succeed, and a tension in the private parts. Some say, that death follows on the third day; but Nicander says on the ninth.

Michaelis finds a difficulty in the mode of attack of the Hebrew shephiphon on "the heels of a horse, so as to make his rider fall backward." He supposes that the phrase restrictively means, that the horse

throws the rider off behind him: and, says he, "I should be curious to know how that is accomplished. Commentators commonly say, because the horse rears up when wounded in the heel. Perhaps they are bad horsemen. In such circumstances, a horse would kick, rather than rear up on his hind legs: and the rider would be thrown over his neck, rather than over the crupper." I feel the force of this observation, and cannot but agree to it. I would therefore doubt, whether the word rendered backward should be restrictively so taken; for instance, suppose the cerastes has bit the horse in the left hind leg, the horse kicking out that leg, and his rider perceiving the cause, would, to avoid the serpent, throw himself off on the further side of the horse from where the serpent was. I say, he would throw himself off, by the opposite side of the horse; which I think sufficiently meets the meaning of the Hebrew word: and it makes no difference on this notion, whether the front leg or the hind leg be bitten; whether the right leg, or the left leg the rider would certain ly avoid that side of the horse where the serpent was, and would throw himself off on that side where he was not. Observe, that the margin, instead of ipel, reads nepel; which, that it may signify a person's causing himself to fall, vide FRAGMENT, No. 208.

In the EXPOSITORY INDEX I have said that Dan probably resembled the cerastes, in feeding full, and then sinking into torpidity, in consequence of such repletion. I think the inducements held out by the spies of the Danites, Judg. xvii. 9, 10. are precisely adapted to such a people; and we are told in the end of the chapter, that they set up the graven image, had their priests, and here they remained, "till the day of the captivity of the land," i.e. distant from interference with the affairs of Israel, and determinate ly settled, apart from their brethren. See verses 7, 28. It remains that we pay some attention to the opin ion of Mr. Bruce, that the cerastes is, under other names, the serpent meant by thebanus ophites, ammo dytes, torrida dipsas, and prester: for, if this be true, we must refrain from appropriating these appellations to other serpents mentioned in Scripture. Mr. Bruce, however, says, that the serpents he found among the balsam-trees, were the cerastes; only some from sex, and some from want of age, had not the horns. We must pause here. Has the female cerastes no horns? This is contradicted by the experience of that noble Venetian, who saw a horned serpent lay eggs, consequently this was a female. Does the cerastes acquire horns by age? I should doubt it; and therefore presume to think, that Mr. Bruce has here, contrary to his design, given evidence of serpents resembling the cerastes, but of a different kind, as appears by their wanting the horns. I would, therefore, apply to the cerastes the history related above by Mr. Bruce and others, but would refer to other species those which have not this conformation: such may be the ammodytes, the hemorrhoiis, the dipsas, &c.

I take this opportunity of adding, that the ammodytes is certainly allied to the cerastes, by its venom, by its habit of hiding itself in the sand, from whence its name is derived, the colour of its back being much of a sand colour, varied by large black spots running down it. It resembles the cerastes, too, by having, at the end of its snout, a little eminence, a sort of horn, about a quarter of an inch in height, moveable backward, from whence it has been called in many countries the "horned asp," or aspic. Its bite kills in three hours time; though some persons bitten may survive several days.

To this class may also be referred the horned serpents of the Gold Coast, mentioned by Bosman, who saw the skin of one five feet long; which apparently is the species described by Dr. Shaw, Naturalist's Miscell. plate 94. Bosman says, these serpents, when filled with prey, through trodden on, will hardly awake. As this serpent is found in western Africa, may it not be extant in eastern Africa also? The following is Dr. Shaw's description.

THE HORN-NOSED SNAKE.

Olive brown snake, freckled with blackish, with a row of pale dorsal spots surrounded by black, and a flexuous pale fascia on the sides.

If at first glance of most of the serpent tribe, an involuntary sort of horror and alarm is so often felt by those who are unused to the examination of these animals, how much greater dread must the unexpected view of the species here exhibited be supposed to inflict? when to the general form of the creature is superadded the peculiar fierceness and forbidding torvity with which nature has marked its countenance; distinguished by the very uncommon appearance of two large and sharp pointed horns, situated, not as in the cerastes above the eyes, but on the top of the nose, or anterior part of the upper jaw. They stand nearly upright, but incline slightly backward, and a little outward on each side, and are of a substance not absolutely horny, but in some degree flexible. Their shape is somewhat triangular or three-sided. They are about half an inch in length, and at the fore part of the base of each stands an upright strong scale, of nearly the same shape with the horn itself, and thus giving the appearance of a much smaller pair of horns. The mouth is furnished with extremely large and long fangs or tubular teeth, situated as in other poisonous serpents, and capable of inflicting the most severe wounds: two of these fangs appear on each side of the mouth, of which the hinder pair are smaller than the others. The length of this animal is about thirty-five inches. Its colour is a yellowish olive brown, very thickly sprinkled all over with minute blackish specks. Along the whole length of the back is placed, at considerable distances, a series of yellowish brown spots or marks, each of which is imbedded in a patch of black; and on each side the body, from head to tail, runs an acutely flexuous or

zigzag line or narrow band, of an ochre colour. This band is bounded beneath by a much deeper or blacker shade than on the rest of the body. The belly is of a dull ochre colour, or cinereous yellow, freckled with spots and markings of blackish. Besides these there

is a number of black spots of different sizes here and there dispersed over the whole snake. The tail is somewhat thin and short in proportion to the body. The scales of this snake are harsh and stiff, and are very strongly carinated. The head is covered with small scales, and is on its upper part marked by a very large longitudinal patch of brown, running out into pointed processes at the sides, and bounded by

a space of dull lead colour or cinereous. The shape of the head is broad and flattened; the cheeks are varied with blackish and yellow. This snake is supposed to be a native of the interior parts of Africa, and was obtained from the master of a Guinea vessel by the Rev. Edward Jenkins of Charleston, South Carolina, by whom it was lately presented to the British museum.

No. 1. The cerastes. No. 2. Head of the cerastes, seen in front, showing his horns. No. 3. Horn of the cerastes. No. 4. Poisonous fang. No. 5. Head of the horned serpent of Western Africa.

THERE seems to be no doubt that the Hebrew word okrab, means a scorpion. The figure of this insect is submitted to inspection above; but the history of it should be known, in order to understand justly the force of passages where it is mentioned. The reader will observe particularly its articulated tail, at the end of which is its sting; and its pincers, or claws, in front, like those of a lobster. "In the tropical climates it is a foot in length. No animal in the creation seems endued with such an irascible nature. When taken, they exert their utmost rage against the glass which contains them will attempt to sting a stick, when put near them; will sting animals confined with them, without provocation; are the cruelest enemies to each other. Maupertius put 100 together in the same glass; instantly they vented their rage in mutual destruction, universal carnage! in a few days only 14 remained, which had killed and devoured all the others. It is even asserted, that when in extremity or despair, the scorpion will destroy itself. It is said to be a common experiment in Gibralter, [and Goldsmith says he had been assured of such a fact, by many eye witnesses,] to take a scorpion newly caught, and surrounding him with burning charcoal, when he perceives the impossibility of escaping, he stings himself on the back of the head, and instantly expires." Surely Moses very properly mentions scorpions among the dangers of the wilderness! Deut. viii. 15. And what shall we think of the hazardous situation of Ezekiel, who is said to dwell among scorpions? chap. ii. 6. people as irascible as this venomous insect. Could a fitter contrast be selected by our Lord, "will a father give a scorpion to his child instead of an egg?" Luke xi. 12.

But the passage most descriptive of the scorpion is Rev. ix. 3, 4, 5, 10. which mentions, locusts, having power as scorpions; not to kill men, but to torment them, during five months, with the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man: they had tails like scorpions, and stings in their tails. Contrary to the na

ture of locusts, they were not to destroy vegetation, but to infest men.

These particulars deserve our notice: 1st, These scorpions have the power of flying. The ancients certainly ranged an insect of some kind, as a flying scorpion. Lucian says, in the Dipsades, "There are two kinds of scorpions, one residing on the ground, large, having claws, and many articulations at the tail: the other flies in the air, and has inferior wings, like locusts, beetles, and bats." Strabo, lib. xvi. reports, that in Mauritania, are found many flying scorpions; others without wings." Scheuzer mentions other testimonies. It is probable, therefore, that the ancients called that a "flying scorpion," which the moderns know under another name. 2dly, They did not kill men, but only torment them. It is not every scorpion whose sting is fatal. In Europe they are seldom deadly, though always dangerous. "In some of the towns in Italy, and in the south of France, it is one of the greatest pests that torments mankind, yet its malignancy in Europe is trifling, compared to its powers in Africa and the East." Maupertius caused a dog to be stung; it died: another dog did not die, though more severely stung, in appearance: and it seems to be generally true, that the stings of the old ones are the most dangerous, and during the heat of summer: which agrees with, 3dly, The five months of the apocalypse: that this was known to the ancients we have the evidence of Tertullian, who says, "The ordinary time of danger is during the heats; the winds of south and southwest, excite its fury:" and Macrobius says, sat. lib. i. cap. 21. "The scorpion slumbers during winter; but when winter is over, its sting resumes its vigour, of which winter had not deprived it." 4thly, As to the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man, Dioscorides thus describes it, lib. vii. cap. 7. "When the scorpion has stung, the place becomes inflamed, and hardened; it reddens by tension, and is painful by intervals, being now chilly, now burning. The pain soon rises