The Romance of Natural History Part 15

[179] _Zool._, 5214.

[180] _Zool._, 7273.

[181] _Zool._ 4049, 4050.

[182] _Travels_, 144.

IX.

SERPENT-CHARMING.

From the day when the solemn doom was p.r.o.nounced,--"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," the serpent-form has begotten revulsion and dread in the human breast. And deservedly; for a venomous serpent is a terrible enemy: the direful venom of sin injected by "that old serpent, the Devil," is well symbolised by the most potent of all lethic agencies,--the poison of the rattlesnake or the cobra.

And yet in all ages there have been persons in the countries where the most venomous snakes abound, who have professed, and have been believed to enjoy, an absolute immunity from their bites, and even to exercise some inexplicable power over them, whereby their rage is soothed, and they are rendered for the time gentle and harmless. The Holy Scriptures repeatedly allude to this ancient art. The Magicians of Egypt, who turned their rods into serpents, are supposed to have had recourse to a secret known, it is said, to the modern conjurors of the same country, who, by pressing the nape of the neck of the cobra with their fingers, throw it into a sort of catalepsy, by which its whole body becomes rigid like a rod, and from which it is relieved by suddenly throwing it on the ground. Aaron's rod was a veritable rod before and after the transaction, but changed into a serpent by Divine miraculous energy: theirs were serpents made to a.s.sume the appearance of rods for the moment by a cunning device.

Other and more direct allusions, however, occur to the art of serpent-charming. Thus the obduracy of the wicked is compared to "the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."[183] And the Aseverity of the Chaldean invaders is depicted under this imagery:--"Behold, I will send serpents, c.o.c.katrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD."[184]

Among the ancient Romans the Psylli, a people of Africa, and the Marsi, a German tribe who had settled in Italy, were reputed to have the power of charming serpents, and to be endowed with immunity from the results of their venom. Celsus, however, maintains that this power consisted in an acquaintance with the fact, now well known, that animal poisons are hurtful only when mingled with the blood. They may therefore be taken into the mouth with perfect impunity. With reference to so great an authority, however, there is more in the art and mystery of serpent-charming than this.

When Lucian describes the Babylonian magician as walking abroad, and calling to him all the serpents that were near, with certain ceremonies, such as the utterance of sacred words from an ancient book, l.u.s.trations made with sulphur and a torch, and solemn marchings in a circle, and when he a.s.serts that the venomous reptiles, _nolentes volentes_, presented themselves harmless at his feet,--he describes a scene which is sufficiently familiar to European travellers in Egypt and India. And so, when Silius Italicus speaks of Atyr, instructed how to disarm serpents of their dire venom, and to lull to sleep the terrible water-snakes with his magic touch, he refers, whether truly or falsely, to something of a more potent character than the feat by which Queen Philippa saved the life of her royal husband.

Immunity from the poison of serpents, and serpent-charming, are two things. The former, so far as it depends on the natural law already mentioned, scarcely comes within the province of this work. But is there not an innate immunity residing in some persons, and even in some peoples, by which, without the operation of any recognised natural law, or even any effort, they are securely protected either against the bites of venomous serpents, or, at least, against the fatality which is the ordinary result of being bitten?

The Psylli, according to Pliny, were so characteristically endowed with this immunity, that they made it a test of the legitimacy of their children; for they were accustomed to expose their new-born babes (only in doubtful cases, we may suppose) to the most venomous serpents they could find; a.s.sured that if their paternity was pure Psyllic, they would be quite unharmed. Of this tribe was the amba.s.sador Hexagon, who, boasting of his power before the Roman consuls, submitted to the crucial test which they suggested, of being inclosed in a vessel swarming with poisonous reptiles, which, says the legendary story, hurt him not.

The same historian tells us that the Psylli, who formerly inhabited the vicinity of the Greater Syrtis,--that is, the modern Tripoli and Barca,--were conquered and almost exterminated by the Nasamones, who possessed their land; but that a remnant fled to some distant region. It is not improbable that the present inhabitants of Sennaar, on the south of Egypt, may be the lineal descendants of these same Psylli; for, since Egypt was densely peopled and highly cultivated, a barbarous tribe could scarcely have made good their footing there; and as on the other side was the Great Desert of the Sahra, and on the north the sea, there was no resource open to them but to creep along the desert edge of Egypt till they found a thinly-inhabited land sufficiently savage to enable them to form a settlement. The first region of this character that they could possibly find would be Nubia; and there it is most interesting to know that there exists a people at the present time, pretending to the same powers as the old Psylli. Bruce, whose testimony, at first much impugned, has come to be received with confidence, avouches 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_--a little asp with two horns, of the most deadly venom--into their hands at all times, put them into their bosoms, and throw them at one another as children do b.a.l.l.s, without ever irritating them by this usage so much as to make them bite. One day when the traveller was sitting with the brother of the prime minister of Sennaar, a slave of his brought a _Cerastes_, which he had just taken out of a hole, and was using with every sort of familiarity. Bruce expressed his suspicion that the teeth had been drawn, but was a.s.sured that they were not, both by the slave and by his master, who, taking the viper from him, wound it round his arm, and at the traveller's desire, ordered the servant to accompany him with it to his residence. Here Bruce, to test the power of the serpent, took a chicken by the neck, and made it flutter; the seeming indifference of the snake immediately gave place to eagerness, and he bit the fowl with great signs of anger, which died almost immediately. Bruce considers that the indifference was only seeming towards the man,--that it was indeed powerlessness, for he constantly observed that, however lively the snake was before, yet upon being seized by any of the blacks, it seemed as if taken with sudden sickness and feebleness, frequently shut its eyes, and never turned its mouth towards the arm of the person who held it.

How exactly this account agrees with the words of Silius,

"---- _tactuque_ graves _sopire_ chelydros."

The Nubian traveller informs us that the Arabs--meaning apparently the Moslem blacks--have not this secret naturally, but that from infancy they acquire an exemption from the mortal consequences attending the bites of all venomous reptiles by chewing a certain root, and was.h.i.+ng themselves (it is not _anointing_) with an infusion of certain plants in water. This is by no means improbable; and it were much to be desired that the root and the plants were obtained and identified, that their preventive powers might be tested by competent men of science. In all probability they would be found to belong to the Qua.s.sia tribe, the natural order _Simarubaceae_, plants of the tropical regions of both continents, whose juices are of an intense bitterness. An infusion of the chips of _Qua.s.sia amara_ and of _Simaruba amara_ is found to be an effectual poison to flies; and the Brazilian Indians use an infusion of _Simaruba versicolor_ as a specific against the bite of serpents, and use it with great effect in the pediculous diseases which are so common among that people.

It was a plant of this order, _Simaba cedron_, on which experiments were made a few years ago, at the Zoological Gardens, just before the lamentable death, by the bite of the Cobra, of poor Gurling, who, indeed, a.s.sisted in them. Mr Squire, the eminent chemist, was desirous of testing the powers of this plant, which, dried and reduced to powder, is in high repute among the Indians of South America as a serpentifuge.

Dr Quain and Mr Evans concurred in this desire; and, with the permission of the Zoological Society of London, a series of experiments, of much interest, if not very conclusive in their results, were performed at the Gardens, on the 8th July 1852.

The trials were made only on small animals, but in each case the alleged remedy proved inefficacious. The experimenters, however, think that it would be unsafe to reject the _Simaba cedron_ as an antidote because it here failed, inasmuch as death followed so rapidly that there was small opportunity for its action. It is not until it shall have been tried and have failed upon stronger animals, that, in the face of the experience of the Indians in hot climates, it should be repudiated. The remedy was applied in the form of an infusion poured down the throat of the bitten animal as quickly as possible after the stroke, and of the moistened powder applied to the wound. It seems to me worthy of consideration whether, in the light of what Bruce says of the Nubians, a was.h.i.+ng of the body with the infusion, or an imbibition of it, or both, _before_ the serpent's attack, might not be more efficacious as a preventive either of the bite or of its results, than its administration afterwards as a cure. Whatever be the substance with which the Nubians wash themselves, it seems to communicate to the body some quality, perhaps of odour, which repels and sickens serpents. Now, this may reside in the intense bitterness of the _Simarubaceae_; and it would be worth while to try whether a rattlesnake or a puff-adder would strike a guinea-pig that had just been bathed in an infusion of the _Simaba_, or to which a dose of the same had just been administered, and if so, whether the bite then would be fatal. Even if these experiments yielded no positive result, it would still be open to consider whether the lapse of time, or a long sea-voyage, or exposure to our moist climate, may not have deprived the powdered root of the plant of ant.i.toxic properties which it may have possessed when freshly prepared in its native region.

Tschudi, whose researches into the natural history of Peru are replete with interesting and valuable information, has some observations on the native remedies for serpent-bites which I will cite, prefacing the extract with a graphically terrible picture from his pen of the venomous reptiles themselves:--

"The serpents are to be feared; and, on approaching them, it is not easy to decide at the first view whether they belong to a poisonous or innoxious species. In the forests, where the fallen leaves lie in thick moist layers, the foot of the hunter sinks deep at every step.

Mult.i.tudes of venomous Amphibia are hatched in the half-putrescent vegetable matter; and he who inadvertently steps on one of these animals may consider himself uncommonly fortunate if he can effect his retreat without being wounded. But it is not merely in these places, which seem a.s.signed by nature for their abode, that loathsome reptiles are found: they creep between the roots of large trees, under the thickly-interwoven brushwood, on the open gra.s.s-plats, and in the maize and sugar-cane fields of the Indians; nay, they crawl even into their huts, and most fortunate is it for the inhabitants of those districts that the number of the venomous, compared with the innoxious reptiles, is comparatively small. Of the poisonous serpents, only a few kinds are known whose bite is attended with very dangerous consequences. The minamaru or jergon (_Lachesis picta_, Tsch.) is, at most, three feet long, with a broad, heart-shaped head, and a thick upper lip. It haunts the higher forests, while in those lower down his place is filled by his no less fearful relative, the flammon, (_Lachesis rhombeata_, Prince Max.,) which is six or seven feet in length. These serpents are usually seen coiled almost in a circle, the head thrust forward, and the fierce, treacherous-looking eyes glaring around, watching for prey, upon which they pounce with the swiftness of an arrow; then, coiling themselves up again, they look tranquilly on the death-struggle of the victim. It would appear that these Amphibia have a perfect consciousness of the dreadful effect of their poisonous weapon, for they use it when they are neither attacked nor threatened, and they wound not merely animals fit for their food, but all that come within their reach. More formidable than the two snakes just described, but happily much less common, is the brown ten-inch-long viper (_Echidna ocellata_, Tsch.). It is brown, with two rows of black circular spots. The effect of its bite is so rapid that it kills a strong man in two or three minutes. So convinced are the natives of its inevitably fatal result, that they never seek any remedy: but immediately on receiving the wound lay themselves down to die. In the montanas of Pangoa this viper abounds more than in any other district: and never without apprehension do the cholos undertake their annual journey for the coca harvest, as they fear to fall victims to the bite of this viper. The warning sound of the rattlesnake is seldom heard in the hot montanas, and never in the higher regions.

"Nature, who in almost all things has established an equilibrium, supplies the natives with remedies against the bite of the serpent. One of the cures most generally resorted to is the root of the amarucachu (_Polianthes tuberosa_,[185] Linn.), cut into slips and laid upon the wound. Another is the juice of the creeping plant called vijuco de huaco (_Mikania huaco_,[186] Kunth), which is already very widely celebrated.

"This latter remedy was discovered by the negroes of the equatorial province Choco. They remarked that a sparrow-hawk, called the _huaco_, picked up snakes for his princ.i.p.al food, and when bitten by one it flew to the vejuco and ate some of the leaves. At length the Indians thought of making the experiment on themselves, and when bitten by serpents they drank the expressed juice of the leaves of the vejuco, and constantly found that the wound was thereby rendered harmless. The use of this excellent plant soon became general, and in some places the belief of the preservative power of the vejuco juice was carried so far that men in good health were inoculated with it. In this process some spoonfuls of the expressed fluid are drunk, and afterwards some drops are put into incisions made in the hands, feet, and breast. The fluid is rubbed into the wounds by fresh vejuco leaves. After this operation, according to the testimony of persons worthy of credit, the bite of the poisonous snake fails for a long time to have any evil effect. Beside the two plants mentioned above, many others are used with more or less favourable results. The inhabitants of the montana also resort to other means, which are too absurd to be detailed here: yet these medicines are often of benefit, for their operation is violently reactive. They usually produce the effect of repeated emetics and cause great perspiration. There is much difference in the modes of external treatment of the wound, and burning is often employed. I saw an Indian apply to his wife's foot, which had been bitten, a plaster consisting of moist gunpowder, pulverised sulphur, and finely-chopped tobacco mixed up together. He laid this over the wounded part, and set fire to it. This application in connexion with one of the nausea-exciting remedies taken inwardly had a successful result.

An English officer, engaged in the wars which freed the South American republics from the Spanish dominion, thus speaks of a plant which is probably the same _Mikania_. His account is curiously confirmatory of the accuracy of Bruce:--

"Among the many medicinal and poisonous plants growing on the banks of the Orinoco, one of the most singular is a species of _vejuco_, which, when properly administered, proves a powerful preservative from the effects of poisonous serpents. It even appears to deprive these reptiles either of their power or inclination to use their fangs. Some of the leaves and small branches are pounded, and applied in that state as a cataplasm to both arms; the skin having been previously scarified freely above the elbows. This species of inoculation is repeated, at stated intervals; the juice of the bruised plant, diluted with water, being also occasionally drunk. Several soldiers, belonging to General Tedeno's division, had undergone this treatment, and frequently made the advantage they had thus acquired useful on a march. They were thereby enabled to take shelter in deserted huts, which we dared not enter on account of the snakes always lurking in such places; although these men could bring them out in their hands, without sustaining any injury. As they had been for some time in our company, we could ascertain that they had not any snakes in their possession concealed for the purpose of deception. Besides, they could have little or no inducement to practice an imposition upon us, as they neither asked for, nor expected, any reward for exhibiting their skill in destroying these reptiles."[187]

According to Captain Forbes, the negroes of Dahomey employ a gra.s.s, or gra.s.s-like herb, with success. One of his hammock-men had been bitten by venomous snakes repeatedly, but, his father being a doctor, he had escaped injury. Walking one day through some long gra.s.s, the captain, pointing to the bare legs of his servant, asked if there was not danger.

"None," said he; "my father picks some gra.s.s, and if on the same day the decoction is applied, the wound heals at once."[188]

Some animals, especially those which prey upon serpents, seem to be proof against their bites. The Ichneumons or Mangoustes of Africa and Asia have long been celebrated for their immunity, and veritable stories have been narrated of their having recourse to some herb, when bitten, after which they successfully renewed the attack. Percival, in his account of Ceylon, relates that a Mangouste placed in a close room where a venomous serpent was, instead of darting at it, as he would ordinarily have done, ran peeping about anxiously seeking some way of escape; but finding none it returned to its master, crept into his bosom, and could by no means be persuaded to face the snake. When, however, both were removed out of the house into the open field, the Mangouste instantly flew at the serpent, and soon destroyed it. After the combat the little quadruped suddenly disappeared for a few minutes, and again returned.

Percival concludes, not unreasonably, that during its absence, it had found the antidotal herb, and eaten of it. The natives state that the Mangouste resorts on such occasions to the _Ophiorhiza mungos_, whose root is reputed a specific for serpents' bites. This is a Cinchonaceous plant, so intensely bitter that it is called by the Malays by a name which signifies earth-gall.[189]

Captain Forbes in his interesting account of Dahomey, alludes to these combats, which he says he has witnessed in India. He says that the serpent (Cobra) has usually the advantage at first, but the Mangouste retreating, devours some wild herb, returns and presently conquers.

Sir Emerson Tennent inclines to refer the immunity of the Mangouste to an inherent property. He remarks that the mystery of its power has been "referred to the supposition that there may be some peculiarity in its organisation which renders it _proof against_ the poison of the serpent.

It remains for future investigation to determine how far this conjecture is founded in truth; and whether in the blood of the Mongoos there exists any element or quality which acts as a prophylactic. Such exceptional provisions are not without precedent in the animal economy: the hornbill feeds with impunity on the deadly fruit of the _Strychnos_; the milky juice of some species of _Euphorbia_, which is harmless to oxen, is invariably fatal to the zebra; and the tsetse fly, the pest of South Africa, whose bite is mortal to the ox, the dog, and the horse, is harmless to man and the untamed creatures of the forest."[190]

Our own hedgehog possesses the privilege of being unharmed by the venom of the viper, as is manifest in its frequent contests with it. Mr Slater has frequently seen combats between these animals, which always terminated in favour of the hedgehog. The latter seemed perfectly regardless of the many bites it received on the snout.[191]

To return to Bruce's statements. After describing the little horned viper of Egypt, the _Cerastes_, and its insidious manner of creeping towards its victim with its head averted, till within reach, when it suddenly springs and strikes, he goes on to say: "I saw one of them at Cairo crawl up the side of a box, in which there were many, and there lie still as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought them to us came near him, and though in a very disadvantageous posture, sticking, as it were, perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's forefinger and thumb, so as to bring the blood. The fellow shewed no signs of either pain or fear, and we kept him with us full four hours, without his applying any sort of remedy, or seeming inclined to do so.

"To make myself a.s.sured" (adds Bruce) "that the animal was in its perfect state, I made the man hold him by the neck, so as to force him to open his mouth and lacerate the thigh of a pelican, a bird I had tamed, as big as a swan. The bird died in about thirteen minutes, though it was apparently affected in fifty seconds; and we cannot think this was a fair trial, because a very few minutes before it had bit the man, and so discharged part of its virus, and it was made to scratch the pelican by force, without any irritation or action of its own.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SNAKE-CHARMING.]

"I will not hesitate to aver," he adds, "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 ate it, as one would do a carrot or a stock of celery, without any seeming repugnance."[192]

A few years earlier than Bruce, Ha.s.selquist, an enthusiastic young naturalist, and one of the pupils of Linnaeus, had visited the East. He paid much attention to the subject, and records his judgment that there is no delusion in serpent-charming, but that certain persons do really, in whatever way they effect it, fascinate serpents. "They take the most poisonous vipers with their bare hands, play with them, put them in their bosoms, and use a great many more tricks with them, as I have often seen. The person I saw on the above day had only a small viper, but I have frequently seen them handle those that are three or four feet long, and of the most horrid sort. I inquired _and examined_ whether they cut out the viper's poisonous teeth: but _I have seen with my own eyes they do not_: we may therefore conclude, that there are to this day Psylli in Egypt; but what art they use is not generally known. Some people are very superst.i.tious; and the generality believe this to be done by some supernatural art, which they obtain from invisible beings; I do not know whether their power is to be ascribed to good or evil; but I am persuaded that those who undertake it use many superst.i.tions."

Subsequently we find some details of interest. "Now was the time (July) to catch all sorts of snakes to be met with in Egypt, the great heats bringing forth these vermin. I therefore made preparation to get as many as I could, and at once received four different sorts, which I have described and preserved in _aqua vitae_. These were the Common Viper, the Cerastes of Alpin, the Jaculus, and an Anguis Marinus. They were brought me by a Psylle, who put me, together with the French consul, Sironcourt, and all the French nation present, in consternation.

"They gathered about us to see how she handled the most poisonous and dreadful creatures alive and brisk, without their doing or offering to do her the least harm. When she put them into the bottle where they were to be preserved, she took them with her bare hands, and handled them as our ladies do their laces. She had no difficulty with any but the _Viperae officinales_, which were not fond of their lodging. They found means to creep out before the bottle could be corked. They crept over the hands and bare arms of the woman, without occasioning the least fear in her; she with great calmness took the snakes from her body, and put them into the place destined for their grave. She had taken these serpents in the field with the same ease she handled them before us; this we were told by the Arab who brought her to us. Doubtless this woman had some unknown art which enabled her to handle those creatures.

It was impossible to get any information from her, for on this subject she would not open her lips."

He thus sums up the results of his investigations. "The circ.u.mstances relating to the fascination of serpents in Egypt stated to me, were princ.i.p.ally:--

"1st.--That the art is only known to certain families, who propagate it to their offspring.

"2d.--The person who knows how to fascinate serpents, never meddles with other poisonous animals; such as scorpions, &c. There are different persons who know how to fascinate these animals; and they again never meddle with serpents.

"3d.--Those that fascinate serpents eat them both raw and boiled, and even make broth of them, which they eat very commonly amongst them; but in particular they eat such a dish when they go out to catch them. I have been told that serpents, fried or boiled, are frequently eaten by the Arabians, both in Egypt and Arabia, though they know not how to fascinate them, but catch them either alive or dead.

"4th.--After they have eaten their soup, they procure a blessing from their scheik, who uses some superst.i.tious ceremonies, and, amongst others, spits on them several times with certain gestures."

The blessing of the priest, Ha.s.selquist p.r.o.nounces correctly enough to be mere superst.i.tion; we may fairly conclude that the eating of the snakes is also irrelevant,--both of these circ.u.mstances being calculated to increase popular wonder only, and to lead the observers from the true scent, which probably is the employment of preventive simples.

Ha.s.selquist had been told of a plant with which the charmers anointed or rubbed themselves before they touched the serpents; but, as no such plant was produced to him, he regarded it as fabulous. We have seen reason, however, to conclude that the real key to the mystery lies there.[193]

The ancients believed that the human spittle was so fatal to serpents that much of the secret of charming lay in the knowledge of this fact.

Of course this would make Psylli of all men; but there may be this measure of truth in the supposition, that the natural exudations of a human body which has been bathed or rubbed with a penetrating alexipharmic, may be so impregnated with the odour, as to be peculiarly repellent of the snake. Denham describes a scene of snake-charming in which the spittle played an important part. A juggler brought him in a bag two venomous snakes, which he set at liberty, beginning to beat a little drum. They immediately reared themselves on their tails, moving in a sort of dance. The juggler played various tricks with them, sometimes wreathing them round his neck, coiling them in his bosom, or throwing them among the people. On pointing his finger at their mouth, they immediately raised themselves in att.i.tude to spring forward and strike; but after having exasperated them to the utmost, _he had only to spit in their face_, to make them retreat quite crest-fallen. From his description these seem to have been of the genus _Naia_, upwards of six feet long, and very venomous. The fangs, he says, had been extracted; but still, to guard against all possible injury, the fellow who played tricks with them had a large roll of cloth wound round the right arm.[194]