took out a large deal-box, drew off the cover, thrust in his hand and
pulled out a large long _Naia haje_ (the Egyptian species of Cobra).
After handling it and playing with it a little while, he set it down on
the floor, half squatted close to it, and fixed his eyes on the snake.
The serpent instantly raised itself, expanded its hood, and turned
slowly on its own axis, following the eye of the young Arab, turning as
his head, or eye, or body turned. Sometimes it would dart at him, as if
to bite. He exercised the most perfect command over the animal. All this
time the old Arab stood still, pensively regarding the operation; but
presently he also squatted down, muttering some words, opposite to the
snake. He evidently affected the reptile more strongly than his more
mercurial relative, though he remained motionless, doing nothing that I
could see but fixing his eyes upon the snake, with his face upon a level
with the raised head of the serpent, which now turned all its attention
to him, and seemed to be in a paroxysm of rage. Suddenly it darted
open-mouthed at his face, furiously dashing its expanded whitish-edged
jaws into the dark hollow cheek of the charmer, who still imperturbably
kept his position, only smiling bitterly at his excited antagonist. I
was very close, and watched very narrowly; but though the snake dashed
at the old Arab's face and into it more than twice or thrice with its
mouth wide open, I could not see the projection of any fang.
"Then the old Arab, who, it was said, had had the gift of charming
serpents in his family for a long series of years, opened another box,
and took out four or five great lizards, and provoked the Naia with
them, holding them by the tails in a sort of four-in-hand style. Then
the youth brought out a Cerastes, which I observed seemed overpowered,
as if, as the country people say, something had come over it. He placed
it on the floor; but this serpent did not raise itself like the Naia,
but, as the charmer stooped to it, moved in a very odd, agitated manner,
on its belly, regarding him askant. I thought the serpent was going to
fly at the lad, but it did not. He took it up, played with it, blew or
spit at it, and then set it down apparently sick, subdued, and limp. He
then took it again, played with it a second time, gathered it up in his
hand, put it in his bosom, went to another box, drew the lid, and
brought out more snakes, one of which was another Naia, and the others
of a most venomous kind.
"Now there were two Naias, with heads and bodies erect, obeying,
apparently, the volition of the charmers. One of the snakes bit the
youth on the naked hand, and brought blood; but he only spat on the
wound and scratched it with his nail which made the blood flow more
freely. Then he brought out more lizards of a most revolting aspect. By
this time the floor of the reptile house, that formed the stage of the
charmers, began to put one in mind of the incantation-scene in _Der
Freischutz_, only that the principal performers looked more like the
Black Huntsman and one of his familiars than Max and Caspar, and the
enchanters' circle was surrounded with fair ladies and their
well-dressed lords, instead of the appalling shapes which thronged round
the affrighted huntsman at the casting of the charmed bullets.
"The Arabs, holding the snakes by the tails, let their bodies touch the
floor, when they came twisting and wriggling on towards the spectators,
who now backed a little upon the toes of those who pressed them from
behind. Sometimes the charmers would loose their hold, when the
serpents, as if eager to escape from their tormentors, rapidly advanced
upon the retreating ring; but they always caught them by the tails in
time, and then made them repeat the same advances. I kept my position in
front throughout, and had no fear, feeling certain that Mr Mitchell,
and those under whose superintendence this highly amusing and
instructive establishment is so well conducted, would not have permitted
the exhibition to take place, if there had been the least danger.
Besides this, I observed that the charmers only used their own serpents,
which they had, I presume, brought with them; and I confess that the
impression upon my mind was, that they had been rendered innoxious by
mechanical means."[200]
This last assumption the narrator subsequently found to be indubitably
true. What is said of the _Cerastes_, however, looks more like the
effect of something detrimental to the snake in the lad's odour, or in
his spittle. Of course no confidence can be placed in their statements,
but it is noteworthy that they both claimed to belong to a race over
whom snakes have no morbific power,--Psylli, in fact, of many
generations.
Dr Davy asserts that in India, however, the poison fangs are _not_
extracted. He tells us that he has himself examined the snakes exhibited
(which are always Cobras) and have found the fangs uninjured. He
attributes the power of the charmers to their agility and courage,
founded on an intimate acquaintance with the habits and disposition of
the reptiles. The learned Doctor acting on this persuasion, says that he
has himself repeatedly irritated these serpents with impunity. They can
be readily appeased when irritated, by the voice and by gentle movements
of the hand in a circle, and by stroking them on the body.
A very curious subject, closely connected with serpent-charming, is the
power of extracting venom from a wound inflicted by reptiles, attributed
to the "snake-stone," which the Hindoos and Cingalese usually carry with
them. Captain Napier thus describes it:--
"These people generally have for sale numbers of _snake-stones_, which
are said to be equally an antidote against the bite of the serpent and
the sting of the scorpion. For the former I have never seen it tried:
and to prove its efficacy with the latter, the samp-wallah generally
carries about in small earthen vessels a number of these animals, one of
which he allows to wound him with his sting. The snake-stone, which is a
dark, shining, smooth pebble, about the size and shape of a French bean,
on being applied to the wound, instantly adheres to it, and by a power
of suction appears to draw out the poison, which is supposed to be
contained in the small bubbles which, on the immersion of the stone into
a glass of water are seen in great numbers to rise to the surface.
"My first idea on beholding the samp-wallah allow himself to be stung by
the scorpion was that the latter had by some means been rendered
harmless. However, not wishing voluntarily to put this to the test by
personal experience, I purchased some of the stones, resolved on the
very first opportunity to try their efficacy. Shortly after this,
happening to be marching up the country with a detachment, we pitched
our camp on some very stony ground, in clearing which one of the English
soldiers happened to be bit [stung] in the hand by a large scorpion. As
soon as I heard of this circumstance, I sent for the sufferer, who
appeared to be in great pain, which he described as a burning sensation
running all the way up his arm to the very shoulder.
"I applied one of the snake-stones to the puncture; it adhered
immediately, and during about eight minutes that it remained on the
patient, he by degrees became easier; the pain diminished, gradually
coming down from the shoulder, until it appeared entirely confined to
the immediate vicinity of the wound. I now removed the stone; on putting
it into a cup of water, numbers of small air-bubbles rose to the
surface, and in a short time the man ceased to suffer any inconvenience
from the accident."[201]
It is scarcely needful to say that the emission of bubbles is a most
ordinary phenomenon, and could have not the slightest connexion with the
alexipharmic power of the stone, whether real or imaginary. Any one may
see exactly the same thing on dropping a bit of new flower-pot, or a
very dry brick into water, or any other substance heavier than the
fluid, which is at the same time dry and porous. It results from the air
which is contained in the pores of the material, which on immersion is
displaced by the heavier water, and rises in oozing bubbles to the
surface.
Sir Emerson Tennent has some observations of much value on these
"stones," as well as on cognate matters, which my readers may like to
see, and with which I close this subject:--
"On one occasion, in March 1854, a friend of mine was riding, with some
other civil officers of the government, along a jungle-path in the
vicinity of Bintenne, when they saw one of two Tamils, who were
approaching them, suddenly dart into the forest and return, holding in
both hands a _cobra di capello_ which he had seized by the head and
tail. He called to his companion for assistance to place it in their
covered basket, but in doing this, he handled it so inexpertly that it
seized him by the finger, and retained its hold for a few seconds, as if
unable to retract its fangs. The blood flowed, and intense pain appeared
to follow almost immediately; but, with all expedition, the friend of
the sufferer undid his waistcloth, and took from it two snake-stones,
each of the size of a small almond, intensely black and highly polished,
though of an extremely light substance. These he applied one to each
wound inflicted by the teeth of the serpent, to which the stones
attached themselves closely, the blood that oozed from the bites being
rapidly imbibed by the porous texture of the article applied. The stones
adhered tenaciously for three or four minutes, the wounded man's
companion in the meanwhile rubbing his arm downwards from the shoulder
towards the fingers. At length the snake-stones dropped off of their own
accord; the suffering appeared to have subsided; he twisted his fingers
till the joints cracked, and went on his way without concern. Whilst
this had been going on, another Indian of the party who had come up
took from his bag a small piece of white wood, which resembled a root,
and passed it gently near the head of the cobra, which the latter
immediately inclined close to the ground; he then lifted the snake
without hesitation, and coiled it into a circle at the bottom of his
basket. The root, by which he professed to be enabled to perform this
operation with safety, he called the _Naya-thalee Kalinga_ (the root of
the snake-plant,) protected by which he professed his ability to
approach any reptile with impunity. In another instance, in 1853, Mr
Lavalliere, the District Judge of Kandy, informed me that he saw a
snake-charmer in the jungle, close by the town, search for a _cobra di
capello_, and, after disturbing it in its retreat, the man tried to
secure it, but, in the attempt, he was bitten in the thigh till blood
trickled from the wound. He instantly applied the _Pamboo-Kaloo_ (or
snake-stone), which adhered closely for about ten minutes, during which
time he passed the root which he held in his hand backwards and forwards
above the stone, till the latter dropped to the ground. He assured Mr
Lavalliere that all danger was then past. That gentleman obtained from
him the snake-stone he had relied on, and saw him repeatedly afterwards
in perfect health. The substances which were used on both these
occasions are now in my possession. The roots employed by the several
parties are not identical. One appears to be a bit of the stem of an
_Aristolochia_; the other is so dry as to render it difficult to
identify it, but it resembles the quadrangular stem of a jungle vine.
Some species of _Aristolochia_, such as the _A. serpentaria_ of North
America, are supposed to act as a specific in the cure of snake-bites;
and the _A. Indica_ is the plant to which the ichneumon is popularly
believed to resort as an antidote when bitten; but it is probable that
the use of any particular plant by the snake-charmers is a pretence, or
rather a delusion, the reptile being overpowered by the resolute action
of the operator, and not by the influence of any secondary appliance,
the confidence inspired by the supposed talisman enabling its possessor
to address himself fearlessly to his task, and thus to effect by
determination and will, what is popularly believed to be the result of
charms and stupefaction."
The writer then alludes to the facts mentioned by Bruce, which I have
before adduced; and proceeds:--
"As to the snake-stone itself, I submitted one, the application of which
I have been describing, to Mr Faraday, and he has communicated to me, as
the result of his analysis, his belief that it is 'a piece of charred
bone which has been filled with blood perhaps several times, and then
carefully charred again. Evidence of this is afforded, as well by the
apertures of cells or tubes on its surface as by the fact that it yields
and breaks under pressure, and exhibits an organic structure within.
When heated slightly, water rises from it, and also a little ammonia;
and, if heated still more highly in the air, the carbon burns away, and
a bulky white ash is left, retaining the shape and size of the 'stone.'
This ash, as is evident from inspection, cannot have belonged to any
vegetable substance, for it is almost entirely composed of phosphate of
lime. Mr Faraday adds that 'if the piece of matter has ever been
employed as a spongy absorbent, it seems hardly fit for that purpose in
its present state; but who can say to what treatment it has been
subjected since it was fit for use, or to what treatment the natives may
submit it when expecting to have occasion to use it?'"
Sir E. Tennent supposes that the animal charcoal may be sufficiently
absorbent to extract the venom from the recent wound together with a
portion of the blood, before it has had time to be carried into the
system. If this be so the process is analogous to that of sucking a
poisoned wound, already referred to.[202]
What the author means by a jungle vine I do not exactly know, but
conjecture that it may be one of the _Bignoniaceae_, the woody climbing
species of which have in general their stem divided into lobes arranged
in a quadrangular manner. I am not aware that any species of this order
is an antidote to animal poisons, but many have powerful medicinal
properties, and abound in bitter juices. The whitewood of Jamaica
(_Bignonia leucoxylon_) enjoys a reputation as a remedy for the poison
of the Manchineel (_Hippomane mancinella_) which is so virulent that
persons are reported to have been killed by its volatile emanations,
when accidentally sleeping under its shade, and a drop of its juice
falling on the skin burns it like fire, and produces an ulcer difficult
to heal. The value of the _Aristolochia_ has been already referred to;
and on the whole I am disposed to attach more importance to the use of
vegetable specifics by the Ceylonese operators than the learned author
whom I have just quoted. The subject is a highly curious one, and well
worthy of minute investigation by able and unprejudiced men of science,
willing to receive unscientific information and suggestions, in various
parts of the world, particularly in the intertropical regions of both
hemispheres.
[183] Psalm lviii. 4, 5.
[184] Jer. viii. 17.
[185] This is the Tuberose, a liliaceous plant, so commonly cultivated
in our conservatories. It is generally stated to be a native of the East
Indies, but the one spoken of by Tschudi, with a Peruvian name, must
certainly be an indigenous plant of the country.
[186] The genus _Mikania_ of Willdenow is one of the tubuliflorous
_Asteraceae_. _M. guaco_ Humboldt mentions, under the name of Vijuco del
Guaco, as being highly esteemed in South America as a valuable antidote
against the bite of serpents. "Guaco" and "huaco" are the same word, the
intensity of the aspirate varying among different peoples. The power of
this _Mikania_ is denied in the most positive terms by Hancock, who
suspects that the real Guaco antidote is some kind of _Aristolochia_.
The word "Vijuco" or "Bejuco," in Tropical America, signifies any
climbing plant, and is equivalent to our florist word "creeper."
_Eupatorium ayapana_, belonging to the same order as _Mikania_, is a
valuable repellent of the poison of venomous snakes. For this purpose it
is used in Brazil. A quantity of the bruised leaves, which are to be
frequently changed, is laid on the scarified wound, and some spoonfuls
of the expressed juice are from time to time administered to the
patient, till he is found to be free from the symptoms, especially the
dreadful anxiety which follows the wounds of venomous reptiles. _E.
perfoliatum_ has a very similar action, and _Mikania opifera_ is
employed in the same way.--(_Lindley's Veg. Kingd._, p. 707.) These
facts tend to confirm the accuracy of Tschudi and Humboldt against
Hancock.
[187] _Campaigns and Cruises in Venezuela_, vol. i., p. 43.
[188] _Dahomey and the Dahomans._
[189] Several of the _Aristolochieae_--plants generally having a very
bitter taste, and a strong, pungent, disagreeable smell--are valuable
alexipharmics. There is a plant very common in Jamaica, where it is
called snake-withe, trailing over the stone fences, which I suspect to
be an _Aristolochia_, and perhaps _A. trilobata_; it is employed as a
sudden and potent sudorific, and as an antidote to serpent-bites in
other countries, for in Jamaica there is no venomous reptile. The _A.
anguicida_ of Carthagena is described by Jacquin as fatal to serpents.
He says that the juice of the root chewed and introduced into the mouth
of a serpent so stupefies it that it may be for a long time handled with
impunity: if the reptile is compelled to swallow a few drops, it
perishes in convulsions. The root is also reputed to be an antidote to
serpent-bites. "It is not a little remarkable," observes Dr Lindley,
"that the power of stupefying snakes, ascribed in Carthagena to
_Aristolochia anguicida_, should be also attributed to _A. pallida_,
_longa_, _b{oe}tica_, _sempervirens_ and _rotunda_; which are said to be
the plants with which the Egyptian jugglers stupefy the snakes they play
with."
[190] _Ceylon_, i., 147.
[191] "On the Habits of the Viper in Silesia:" _Zoologist_, p. 829.
[192] _Trav. to the Sources of the Nile, passim._
[193] _Travels in the Levant, passim._
[194] _Discov. in Africa_, ii., p. 292.
[195] _Lucan's Pharsalia._
[196] _Ind. Field Sports._
[197] _Mod. Egyptians._
[198] _Zool._, 6400.
[199] _Beauties of Christianity._
[200] _Note-book of a Naturalist_, 202.
[201] Napier's _Scenes and Sports_, vol. ii., p. 227.
[202] Tennent's _Ceylon_.
X.
BEAUTY.
Very much of the delight with which we pursue natural history is surely
due to the almost constant recognition of the beautiful. I do not know
that I could say with the poet,--
"A thing of beauty is a joy _for ever_;"
but certainly it is a joy as long as it endures; and the naturalist
finds an endless recurrence of things of beauty. Birds, insects, shells,
zoophytes, flowers, sea-weeds, are all redundant of beauty; and all the
classes of natural objects, though not in an equal degree, nor
manifestly in every individual object, yet possess it as a prominent
element. Indeed, from the profusion with which loveliness is sown
broadcast over the works of God, I have often thought, though it is not
directly revealed, that a sense of the beautiful and a complacency in
it, altogether independent of fitness for certain ends, or the uses
which may be subserved, is an attribute of the Holy One Himself, and
that our perception of it is the reflection of His--a part of that image
of God in which man was created, and which sin has not wholly
obliterated. I know that God may have clothed His works with beauty for
other admiring eyes than man's; and that it is probable that the holy
angels may be far more conversant with creation than we are with all our
researches,--that the ten thousand times ten thousand flowers which are
"born to blush unseen" by _man_, may be seen and admired by "ten
thousand times ten thousand" angels,[203] and thus the tribute of praise
for their perfection may be ever ascending before Him whose hands made
them for His glory. We may allow this; and yet with reverence presume
that His own pure eyes look upon the lilies' array with a delight in
their mere loveliness, infinitely greater than that which men, or even
angels, take in it, seeing it is written,--"for thy pleasure they are,
and were created."
I remember being struck, and somewhat awed, too, with a thought of this
kind, once, when, pushing my way through a very dense and tangled
thicket in a lone and lofty mountain region of Jamaica, sufficiently
remote from the dwellings of man to render it probable that no civilized
human foot had penetrated thither before. I suddenly came upon a most
magnificent terrestrial orchid in full blossom. It was _Phajus
Tankervilliae_,--a noble plant, which from the midst of broad leaves
growing out of a mass of green bulbs, had thrown up its stout
blossom-stems to the height of a yard or more, crowned with the
pyramidal spike of lily-like flowers, whose expanding petals of pure
white on one side and golden brown on the other, and trumpet-lip of
gorgeous purple seemed, to my ravished gaze, the very perfection of
beauty. For ages, I thought, that beauteous flower had been growing in
that wild and unvisited spot, every season "filling the air around with
beauty," and had in all probability never met a single human gaze
before. Had, then, all that divinely-formed loveliness been mere waste
for those generations? I asked myself; and I immediately replied, No:
the eye of God himself hath rested on it with satisfaction, and the Lord
hath taken pleasure in this work of His hands.
I shall not make this chapter an essay on the sublime and beautiful, nor
seek to analyse the sense of beauty. It is enough that it is an appetite
of our being, and that most abundantly in nature, on every side, there
is the material of its gratification. So abundantly, indeed, that it
were easy to expand the few pages which I propose to devote to the
subject into a volume, or a dozen volumes, and yet leave untouched vast
treasures of the beautiful in natural history. I must content myself and
my readers with the selection of a few of the more prominent objects in
which this sense is gratified, and with a discrimination of two or three
distinct phases or conditions of existence which contribute, each in its
measure, to give delight to the eyes.
[Illustration: ANTELOPES.]
Among Quadrupeds, there is perhaps less of beauty, strictly considered,
than in most other classes of animals. Elegance of form, however, which
is one phase of it, is seen in the lithe and active squirrel, the pretty
petaurist, and many other of the smaller beasties, and is found in
perfection in the deer and antelopes. Who that has seen a pet fawn
coming to be caressed by a fair girl, but must have had his sense of the
beautiful gratified? Mark the freedom and grace of every motion! See
how it stretches out its pretty meek face and taper neck towards the
hand; its extreme timidity causing its whole body and every limb to
start on the slightest stir from the beholders, while on the least
approach it bounds away in the exuberant playfulness of its little
heart, then stops, and turns, and gazes, and stretches out its neck
again! See when it trots or walks, how high it lifts its little slender
feet, bending its agile limbs as if motion itself were a pleasure! See,
as it stands, with one fore-foot bent up, the hoof nearly touching the
belly; the long graceful ears moving this way and that, now thrown
forwards, now backwards, now erected, to catch the slightest
sound,--what a picture of fairy grace it is! There is beauty, too, in
the soft, full liquid eye of these animals,--the "bright, black eye" of
the "dear gazelle," which in the East is the very ideal of female
loveliness. Its melting gaze seems full of tenderness, so that we cannot
look without loving it.