"Well, den, please, mass', hold dis stick. I for something go. Jes now
berry curious plant I see--berry curious--berry scace dat plant. I seed
it in de cane-brake. Catch 'old, mass', while I go get um."
I took hold of the sapling, and held it as desired, though not without
some apprehension of the hideous reptile that curled and writhed at my
feet. I had no need to fear, however. The fork was exactly across the
small of the creature's neck, and it could not raise its head to strike
me. Large as it was, there was no danger from anything but its fangs;
for the _crotalus_, unlike serpents of the genus _constrictor_,
possesses but a very feeble power of compression.
Gabriel had gone off among the bushes, and in a few minutes I saw him
returning. He carried in his hand a plant which, as before, he had
pulled up by the roots. Like the former, it was a herbaceous plant, but
of a very different appearance. The leaves of this one were
heart-shaped and acuminate, its stem sinuous, and its flowers of a dark
purple colour.
As the black approached, I saw that he was chewing some parts both of
the leaves and root. What did he mean to do?
I was not left long in suspense. As soon as he had arrived upon the
ground, he stooped down, and spat a quantity of the juice over the head
of the snake. Then, taking the sapling out of my hand, he plucked it up
and flung it away.
To my dismay, the snake was now set free; and I lost no time in
springing backward, and mounting upon the log.
Not so my companion, who once more stooped down, caught hold of the
hideous reptile, fearlessly raised it from the ground, and flung it
around his neck as coolly as if it had been a piece of rope!
The snake made no effort to bite him. Neither did it seem desirous of
escaping from his grasp. It appeared rather to be stupefied, and
without the power of doing injury!
After playing with it for some moments, the Bambarra threw it back to
the ground. Even there it made no effort to escape!
The charmer now turned to me, and said, in a tone of triumph, "Now,
mass' Edward, you shall hab rebenge. Look at dis!"
As he spoke he pressed his thumb against the fauces of the serpent,
until its mouth stood wide open. I could plainly see its terrible fangs
and poison glands. Then, holding its head close up to his lips, he
injected the dark saliva into its throat, and once more flung it to the
ground. Up to this time he had used no violence--nothing that would
have killed a creature so retentive of life as a snake; and I still
expected to see the reptile make its escape. Not so, however. It made
no effort to move from the spot, but lay stretched out in loose
irregular folds, without any perceptible motion beyond a slight
quivering of the body. In less than two minutes after, this motion
ceased and the snake had all the appearance of being dead!
"It am dead, mass'," replied the black to my inquiring glance, "dead as
Julium Caesar."
"And what is this plant, Gabriel?"
"Ah, dat is a great yerb, mass'; dat is a scace plant--a berry scace
plant. Eat some ob dat--no snake bite you, as you jes seed. Dat is de
plant ob de _snake-charmer_."
The botanical knowledge of my sable companion went no farther. In after
years, however, I was enabled to classify his "charm," which was no
other than the _Aristolochia serpentaria_--a species closely allied to
the "bejuco de guaco," that alexipharmic rendered so celebrated by the
pens of Mutis and Humboldt.
My companion now desired me to chew some of the roots; for though he had
every confidence in the other remedy, he deemed it no harm to make
assurance doubly sure. He extolled the virtues of the new-found plant,
and told me he should have administered it instead of the seneca root,
but he had despaired of finding it--as it was of much more rare
occurrence in that part of the country.
I eagerly complied with his request, and swallowed some of the juice.
Like the seneca root, it tasted hot and pungent, with something of the
flavour of spirits of camphor. But the polygala is quite inodorous,
while the guaco gives forth a strong aromatic smell, resembling
valerian.
I had already experienced relief--this would have given it to me almost
instantaneously. In a very short time time the swelling completely
subsided; and had it not been for the binding around my wrist, I should
have forgotten that I had been wounded.