Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/219

Rh there are facts well attested that cannot be so summarily disposed of. Bruce, who often witnessed these performances, affirms that there can be no doubt of their reality. “Some,” he says, “have doubted that it was a trick, and that the animals so handled had been first 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 the tail, has ate it, as one would do a carrot or a stock of celery, without any seeming repugnance.

“I can also avouch, 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 at 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