THE GUANA-SERPENTS.

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Nor are the ants less obnoxious; they vary in shape, size, and colour; the largest are black, near an inch long, and of great strength; their bite is painful, and blood frequently follows the wound. They march in large armies, and exact heavy contributions, particularly on sugar and preserves, though few eatables come amiss, and in a few hours they commit terrible depredations. But the termites, or white ants, make still greater havoc; they gnaw through the thickest planks, demolish beams and rafters, and entirely destroy books, papers, and bales of goods; which they perforate in a thousand places. These, at a certain season, quit their reptile state, and become a winged insect.

Lizards abound in the houses, fields, and gardens; they are a harmless race, differing in size, form, and colour; and some, like the chamelion, assume different hues. The alligator, which in all respects resembles the Egyptian crocodile, is a terrible animal, seldom seen on Bombay; but they are found in most of the rivers on the continent from five to twenty feet in length. The guaŋa, a land animal of the lacerta tribe, is the next in size, though seldom exceeding four feet; its colour is a dirty green, and the skin covered with scales; some of the natives eat the flesh, and consider it a dainty; others use it in medicine as a great restorative. India, like most other countries between the tropics, is infested by serpents, scorpions, centipedes, and noxious reptiles of various kinds.

Among the serpents of India the cobra-minelle is the smallest, and most dangerous; the bite occasions a speedy and painful death. They are of a brown colour, speckled with black and white, though at a distance not easily distinguished from the ground on which they move; and happy would it be if they con

fined themselves to it; but they enter the houses, and creep upon the beds and chairs; I once found four, and at another time five, in my chamber up stairs.

The cobra de capello, or hooded-snake (coluber naja), called by the Indians the naag, or nagao, is a large and beautiful serpent; but one of the most venomous of all the coluber class; its bite generally proves mortal in less than an hour. It is called the hooded-snake, from having a curious hood near the head, which it contracts or enlarges at pleasure; this faculty is occasioned by the length of the long legs proceeding from the vertebræ in that part, and which, assisted by proper muscles, enable the snake to extend the skin of the neck to a large flattened surface or hood. The centre of this hood is marked in black and white like a pair of spectacles, from whence it is also named the spectacle-snake.

Of this genus are the dancing snakes, which are carried in baskets throughout Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people, who play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the snakes seem much delighted, and keep time by a graceful motion of the head; erecting about half their length from the ground, and following the music with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan's neck. It is a well attested fact, that when a house is infested with these snakes, and some others of the coluber genus, which destroy poultry and small domestic animals, as also by the larger serpents of the boa tribe, the musicians are sent for; who by playing on a flagelet, find out their hiding-places, and charm them to destruction; for no sooner do the snakes hear the music, than they come softly from their retreat, and

DANCING SNAKES.

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are easily taken. I imagine these musical snakes were known in Palestine, from the Psalmist comparing the ungodly to the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Psalm lviii. v. 4, 5.

When the music ceases the snakes appear motionless; but if not immediately covered up in the basket, the spectators are liable to fatal accidents. Among my drawings is that of a cobra de capello, which danced for an hour on the table while I painted it; I frequently handled it, to observe the beauty of the spots, and especially the spectacles on the hood, not doubting but that its venomous fangs had been previously extracted. But the next morning my upper servant, who was a zealous Mussulman, came to me in great haste, and desired I would instantly retire, and praise the Almighty for my good fortune: not understanding his meaning, I told him that I had already performed my devotions, and had not so many stated prayers as the followers of his prophet. Mahomet then informed me, that while purchasing some fruit in the bazaar, he observed the man who had been with me on the preceding evening, entertaining the country people with his dancing snakes; they, according to their usual custom, sat on the ground around him; when, either from the music stopping too suddenly, or from some other cause irritating the vicious reptile which I had so often handled, it darted at the throat of a young woman, and inflicted a wound of which she died in about half an hour. Mahomet repeated his advice for praise and thanksgiving to Alla, and recorded me in his calendar as a lucky man.

Dr. Russell, in his valuable treatise on Indian ser

pents, has distinguished between the venomous and the harmless species, in the three genera of boa, coluber, and anguis: he has given an accurate description, and coloured engravings of forty-three of the most common serpents in Hindostan ; experiments on the effects of their bite, and the several remedies applied; with observations on the apparatus provided by nature, for preparing and instilling their poison he mentions, that a quantity of warm Madeira wine taken internally, with an outward application of eau-de-luce on the punctures, was generally successful in curing the bite of the most venomous species and that the medicine called the Tanjore-pill seemed to be equally efficacious. Dr. Russell further observes, that "of forty-three serpents examined and described by him, seven only were found with poisonous organs and upon comparing the effects of the poison of five oriental serpents on brute animals, with those produced by the poison of the rattle-snake, and the European viper, it may in general be remarked, that they all produce morbid symptoms nearly similar; however much they may differ in the degree of their deleterious power, or in the rapidity of its operation. The bite of a rattle-snake in England, killed a dog in two minutes; the bite of the most pernicious snake in India was never observed to kill a dog in less than twenty-seven minutes.

It would be entering on too extensive a field to describe the character and beauty of the papilios, libellulæ, scarabei, cicadæ, cantharides, and other insects, which animate the Indian groves and gardens throughout the day and are succeeded by a variety of moths, and nocturnal visitors; but especially the lampyris,

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY.

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or fire-flies, which glitter by thousands in the dark recesses of the banian-tree; and in perpetual motion on the external branches of the spreading tamarind, produce a singular and brilliant effect. The locusts, which are so much dreaded in many parts of Hindostan, are seldom seen on Bombay: but the creepingleaf, and some others of the mantis class, are extremely curious.

India also abounds with wasps and bees; the latter build their nests in rocky caverns and hollow trees, and produce plenty of wax and honey; but the best is brought from Muscat, and different parts of Arabia. The bees are sometimes very troublesome and dangerous, and often annoyed us in our visits to the caves at Salsette and the Elephanta; where they make their combs in the clefts of the rocks, and in the recesses among the figures, and hang in immense clusters: I have known a whole party put to the rout in the caverns of Salsette, and obliged to return with their curiosity unsatisfied, from having imprudently fired a gun to disperse the bees, who in their rage pursued them to the bottom of the mountains.

I am surprized that commentators on the scriptures have perplexed themselves about the food of John the Baptist in the wilderness; which we are informed consisted of locusts and wild honey; and for which the cassia-fistula, or locust-tree, and many other substitutes have been mentioned; but it is well known that locusts are an article of food in Persia and Arabia, at the present day; they are fried until their wings and legs fall off, and in that state are sold in the markets, and eaten with rice and dates, sometimes flavoured with salt and spices: and the wild honey

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