Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/393

CONCERNING FRIENDSHIP. 389 (]?.ys after, we had the pleasure to see her revenge herself. Jo. I am gla.d a^ my heart ; but prithee, how was it ? Ep. We happened to be walking near the same place, and the ser- pent had been drinking at a spring hard by, for. it. was so violent hot weather, that we were like to perish with thirst. A boy of about thirteen years old, the man's son where we lodged, having fled' from Bononia for fear of the pestilence, happened very luckily to come by with a hay- rake upon his shoulder ; as soon as he saw the serpent he cries out. Jo. Perhaps for fear. Ep. No ; for joy, rejoicing that he had found the enemy. The boy strikes him with the rake, the serpent rolls him- self up, but he laid on, till having broke his head, the serpent stretched himself out, which they never do but when they are dying ; that is the reason, that you have heard the apologist concerning a crab-fish, who killing a serpent that was his enemy, when he saw him stretched out, says thus, You ought to have gone so when you were alive. Jo. That was bravely done ; but how then? Ep. The boy takes him upon his rake, and hangs him upon a shrub over the cave, and in a few days' time we saw the leaves tinctured with the blood of the serpent. The husbandmen of that place related to us a wonderful strange thing for a certain truth ; that the countrymen being weary sometimes, sleep in that field, and have sometimes with them a pitcher of milk, which serves both for victuals and drink ; that serpents are great lovers of milk, and so it often happens that, they come in their way. But they have a remedy for that. Jo. Pray, what is it? Ep. They daub the brims of the pitcher with garlic, and the smell of that drives away the serpents.

Jo. What does Horace mean, then, when he says garlic is a poison more hurtful than henbane, when you say it is an antidote against poison ? Ep. But heaj a little, I have something to tell you that is worse than that. They often creep slily into the mouth of a man that lies sleeping with his mouth open, and so wind themselves into his stomach. Jo. And does not a man die immediately that has enter- tained such a guest ? Ep. No, but lives most miserably ; nor is there any remedy but to feed the man with milk, and other things that; the serpent loves. Jo. What, no remedy against such a calamity ? Ep. Yes, to eat abundance of gai'lic. Jo. No wonder, then, mowers love garlic. Ep. But those that are tired with heat and labour have their remedy another way ; for, when they are in danger of this misfortune, very often a lizard, though but a little creature, saves a man. Jo. How can he save him ? Ep. When he perceives a serpent lying per- due in wait for the man, he runs about upon the man's neck and face, and never gives over till he has waked the man by tickling him, and clawing him gently with his nails ; and as soon as the man wakes, and sees the lizard near him, he knows the enemy is somewhere not far off in ambuscade, and looking about seizes him. Jo. The wonderful power of nature !

Ep. Now, there is no living creature that is so great an enemy to man as a crocodile, who oftentimes devours men whole, and assists his malice by an artifice ; having sucked in water, he makes the paths slippery where they go to the Nile to draw water, and when they fall down, there swallows them up. Nor can you be ignorant that dolphins that live in a quite different element are great lovers of men. Jo.