may signify a person's causing himself to fall, vide FRAGMENT, No. 208.

In the EXPOSITORY INDEX, I have said that Dan probably resembled the cerastes, in feeding full, and then sinking into torpidity, in consequence of such repletion. I think the inducements held out by the spies of the Danites, Judg. xvii. 9, 10. are precisely adapted to such a people; and we are told in the end of the chapter, that they set up the graven image, had their priests, and here they remained, "till the day of the captivity of the land," i. e, distant from interference with the affairs of Israel, and determinately settled apart from their brethren. See verses 7, 28.

It remains that we pay some attention to the opinion of Mr. Bruce, that the cerastes is, under other names, the serpent meant by the banus ophites, ammodytes, torrida dipsas, and prester: for if this be true, we must refrain from appropriating these appellations to other serpents mentioned in Scripture. Mr. Bruce, however, says, that the serpents he found among the balsamtrees, were the cerastes; only some from sex, and some from want of age, had not the horns. We must pause here. Has the female cerastes no horns? This is contradicted by the experience of that noble Venetian, who saw a horned serpent lay eggs, consequently this was a female. Does the cerastes acquire horns by age? I should doubt it; and therefore presume to think, that Mr. Bruce has here, contrary to his design, given evidence of serpents resembling the cerastes, but of a different kind, as appears by their wanting the horns. I would therefore, apply to the cerastes the history related above by Mr. Bruce and others, but would refer to other species those which have not this conformation: such may be the ammodytes, the hemorrhois, the dipsas, &c.

I take this opportunity of adding, that the ammodytes is certainly allied to the cerastes, by its venom, by its habit of hiding itself in the sand, from whence its name is derived, the colour of its back being much of a sand colour, varied by large black spots running down it. It resembles the cerastes, too, by having, at the end of its snout, a little eminence, a sort of horn, about a quarter of an inch in height, moveable backward, from whence it has been called in many countries the "horned asp," or aspic. Its bite kills in three hours time; though some persons bitten may survive several days.

To this class may also be referred the horned serpents of the Gold Coast, mentioned by Bosman, who saw the skin of one five feet long; which apparently is the species described by Dr. Shaw, Naturalist's Miscell. plate 94. Bosman says, these serpents, when filled with prey, though trodden on, will hardly

awake. As this serpent is found in western Africa, may it not be extant in eastern Africa also? The following is Dr. Shaw's description.

THE HORN-NOSED SNAKE.

Olive brown snake, freckled with blackish, with a row of pale dorsal spots surrounded by black, and a flexuous pale fascia on the sides.

If at first glance of most of the serpent tribe, an involuntary sort of horror and alarm is so often felt by those who are unused to the examination of these animals, how much greater dread must the unexpected view of the species here exhibited be supposed to inflict? when to the general form of the creature is superadded the peculiar fierceness and forbidding torvity with which nature has marked its countenance: distinguished by the very uncommon appearance of two large and sharp pointed horns, situated, not as in the cerastes above the eyes, but on the top of the nose, or anterior part of the upper jaw. They stand nearly upright, but incline slightly backward, and a little outward on each side, and are of a substance not absolutely horny, but in some degree flexible. Their shape is somewhat triangular or three-sided. They are about half an inch in length, and at the fore part of the base of each stand an upright strong scale, of nearly the same shape with the horn itself, and thus giving the appearance of a much smaller pair of horns. The mouth is furnished with extremely large and long fangs or tubular teeth, situated as in other poisonous serpents, and capable of inflicting the most severe wounds: two of these fangs appear on each side of the mouth, of which the hinder pair are smaller than the others. The length of this animal is about thirty-five inches. Its colour is a yellowish olive brown, very thickly sprinkled all over with minute blackish specks. Along the whole length of the back is placed, at considerable distances, a series of yellowish brown spots or marks, each of which is imbedded in a patch of black; and on each side the body, from head to tail, runs an acutely flexuous or zigzag line or narrow band, of ochre colour. This band is bounded beneath by a much deeper or blacker shade than on the rest of the body. The belly is of a dull ochre colour, or cinereous yellow, freckled with spots and markings of blackish. Besides these there is a number of black spots of different sizes here and there dispersed over the whole snake. The tail is somewhat thin and short in proportion to the body. The scales of this snake are harsh and stiff, and are very strongly carinated. The head is covered with small scales, and is on its upper part marked by a very large longitudinal patch of brown, running out into

pointed processes at the sides, and bounded by a space of dull lead colour or cinereous. The shape of the head is broad and flattened; the cheeks are varied with blackish and yellow. This snake is supposed to be a native of the interior parts of Africa, and was obtained from the master of a Guinea vessel by the Rev. Edward Jenkins of Charleston, South Carolina, by whom it was lately presented to the British Museum.

4440

THE ANACONDA OF THE EAST-INDIES.

An account of this dreadful serpent is taken from the letter of a gentleman who resided in the Indies many years where he saw it.

SIR,

I HAVE an account to give you here, which must startle you; but be assured, sir, I shall aggravate no circumstance, but merely tell you what myself and more than a hundred others saw, for two whole days together.

Some years since, the commands of my directors carrying me to Ceylon, to transact an affair of no little consequence, I had an apartment prepared me on the skirts of the principal town facing the woods at some distance from my window there stood some large palm-trees, that afforded me a delightful prospect.

One morning, as I was looking at these trees, I saw, as I thought, a large arm of one of them in strange commotions, bending and twisting about, though there was no wind, and often striking one end to the earth and raising it again, and losing it among the leaves. I was gazing at this with great amazement, when a Ceyloneze coming in, I begged him to look and wonder with me he looked, sir, and he was much more amazed and terrified than I; in short a paleness overspread his face, and he seemed almost sinking to the earth with terror.

He begged me to bar up all my doors; then told me, that what appeared an arm of a tree to me, was in reality a serpent of that monstrous size diverting itself there with its various commotions, and now and then darting down to the earth for its prey.

I soon found out the truth of what he told me ; and looking more nearly, saw it seize a small animal before me and take it up into the tree.

Inquiring after this miracle, the Ceyloneze told me that the wonder was only that the creature was so near us, for that it was a serpent but too well known on the island; but that it usually kept in the inland parts of the woods, where it often dropped down from the covert of a large tree, and devoured a traveller alive.

A relation so strange as this could never have gained credit with me, but that I actually saw the creature, from its size, capable of doing more than was related.

It continued diverting itself till we assembled a body of twelve of us, to go on horseback well armed to destroy him.

We rode near the place, but not to expose ourselves to danger we rode behind a thicket from whence we might unseen level our fire-arms at him; but when we arrived there, we found him so much larger than we had conceived, that we wished ourselves at home again; and for along time we dared not fire.

We had now time to observe the creature; and believe me, sir, all the descriptions of monsters of this kind hitherto given are trifles to what we saw in him. The Ceyloneze all declared he was much larger than any they had ever seen, and such a mixture of horror and beauty together, no eye but that which saw it can conceive.

The creature was more than as thick as a slender man's waist, yet seemed far from fat, and very long in proportion to his thickness; often hanging himself by the tail from the highest boughs of the tree, and reaching the ground with his head. He was surprisingly nimble, and was now diverting himself in the heat of the day with a thousand gambols round the branches of the tree, and would sometimes come down and twist his tail round the bottom of the trunk, throwing himself to his whole length all around it. In the midst of one of these gambols, we were surprised to see him, all of a sudden, spring up into the tree; but the cause soon appeared an animal of the fox kind, which the serpent had seen, coming towards him, he took this way to be prepared for him. He darted down upon the unweary creature, and sucked him in in a few minutes, then licked his chops with a broad double tongue of a blackish colour, and laid himself at his ease at length upon the ground; but with his tail still twisted round the tree.

In this posture I had an opportunity with horror, yet with admiration, to behold him. He was covered with scales like a crocodile; his head was green, with a large black spot in the middle, and yellow streaks round the jaws; he had a yellow circle of a gold colour round his neck, and behind that another great spot of black. His sides were of an olive colour, and his back more beautiful than can be described : his head was very flat, but extremely broad, and his eyes monstrously large and very bright and terrible. When he moved about in the sun he was, if possible, a thousand times more beautiful than before, the colour according to the several shades of light presenting a vast variety of colours, in many places looking like our changable colours in silk.

We all aimed our pieces at him as he lay, and fired at his head all at once; but whether he accidentally moved just at that time, or our fears made us take bad aim, we either missed him or never hurt him, for he took no notice of it: and after a council of war, we all agreed to make no farther attempt upon him at that time, but to go home, and return with a stronger party the next day.

The Cyloneze seemed to know the creature well; they called it Anaconda, and talked of eating its flesh when they caught it, as they had no small hopes of this: for, they say, when one of these creatures chooses a tree for its dwelling, he seldom quits it for a long time.

I detained my company to dine with me, and the afternoon was spent in relating the amazing things which one or other of the company had seen of this sort of monster; in short, they told abundance of things that far outwent my credulity; but what we saw the next day, as much exceeded all they had told me, as what they told seemed to exceed truth and probability.

It seems the custom of this creature to lay wait for its prey is, by hiding in the boughs of large trees, from whence it unexpectedly drops upon the creature, which is seized before it sees an enemy; but the instance we saw of this, I must relate to you.

The next morning, sir, we assembled to the number of 100, at the same thicket, where we had the pleasure (if I dare call it so,) to find our enemy at his old post. He seemed very fierce and very hungry this morning, and we soon saw the effects of it.

There are great plenty of tygers in that country; one of these, of a monstrous size, not less than a common heifer, as he went along, came at length under the serpent's tree; in a moment we heard a dreadful rustling in the tree, and swift as thought the serpent dropped upon him, seizing him across the back, a little below the shoulders, with his horrible mouth, and taking in a piece of the back bigger than a man's head; the creature roared with agony, and to our unspeakable terror, was running with his enemy toward us; his course however was soon stopped, for the nimble adversary winding his body three or four times round the body of his prey, girded him so violently, that he soon fell down in an agony. The moment the serpent had fixed his folds, he let go the back of the creature, and raising and twisting round the head, opened its horrid mouth to its full extent, and seized the whole face of the tyger in it, biting and grinding him in a most horrible manner, and at once choaking him and tearing him to pieces.

The tyger reared up again on this, and words are too poor to paint his seeming agony; he writhed and tossed about, but all in vain, the enemy wherever he went was with him, and his hollow