Lays the rough paths of peevish nature even, And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive. A little we discover, but allow That more remains unseen than art can show ; Dawnings of beams and promises of day. Then constant Faith and holy Hope shall die, Shalt stand before the host of Heaven confess'd, * i. e. lying between the sight and its object. FORBES' ORIENTAL MEMOIRS. STARTING from Brodera and Meah Gaum we travelled westward through the Jamboseer and Ahmoor purgunnas. The abundance of game in this country, and especially of wild peacocks in the woodlands, is astonishing: every village seems to have an appropriate share of these birds in the surrounding groves. There, as in the Dhuboy districts, peacocks and monkeys are protected, and allowed an ample share of grain in the cullies, or farm-yards. The peafowl in other parts of the country, secluded from the haunts of men, subsist, no doubt, upon wild fruits, insects, and reptiles, which everywhere abound, especially of the coluber tribe; for, although, like the rest of the species, the peafowl of Guzerat are granivorous, they are also very fond of serpents, and devour them whenever they have an opportunity. The natives are still more obliged to the sahras, storks, cranes, and many other graminivorous and aquatic birds, for the destruction of those enemies, which they swallow with great avidity. And as the snake devours poultry and animals of various descriptions, ten times larger than itself, so the peacock contrives to swallow a serpent of almost incredible magnitude, even the cobra di capello, and others of a poisonous nature. The cobra di capello, or coluba naja, is as common in Guzerat as in many parts of Hindostan. At Dhuboy they were of the largest size, and generally of a paler colour than those in the Concan, occasioned perhaps by the contrast; the hood of those in Guzerat appears more brilliant, and the black and white marks in the spectacles more distinct, than in the darker kind at Bombay. I have frequently found very large skins of those serpents, perfect and of great beauty, in caverns and thick bushes, in different parts of India; particularly in the caves of Salsette and Elephanta, where they are very abundant. In Mr. Boaz's account of the serpents at Bombay, it appears that Gmelin's "Systema Natura" describes two hundred and nineteen different kinds of snakes, of which, according to Linnæus, only one in ten are poisonous to man, though they may be destructive to lesser animals. "The most certain indication to be depended on, is the large canine teeth or fangs fixed in the upper jaw, which are commonly two in number, but sometimes more. These teeth are covered with a membranous sheath, and are crooked, moveable, and hollow, to give passage to the venom, which they receive from a small reservoir that runs along the palate of the mouth, and passes through the body of each fang. This reservoir contains only a small quantity of venom, which is forced out of it when the animal attempts to bite, by a strong muscle fixed in the upper jaw for that purpose. It has been well observed by Linnæus, that if Nature has thrown them naked on the ground, destitute of limbs, and exposed to every misery, she has in return supplied them with a deadly poison, the most terrible of all weapons! "On procuring a large cobra di capello with the venomous teeth and poison-bag entire, it was made to bite a young dog in the hind leg, for which no medicine was made use of. The dog upon being bit howled violently for a few minutes; the wounded limb soon became paralytic; in ten minutes the dog lay senseless and convulsed; in thirteen minutes he was dead. A dog of a smaller size, and younger, was bitten in the hind leg, when he was instantly plunged into a warm nitre bath prepared on purpose. The wound was scarified, and washed with the solution of caustic, while some of it was poured down its throat. The dog died in the same time, and with the same symptoms as the former. After an interval of one day, the same snake was made to bite a young puppy in the hind leg; but above the part bitten a ligature was previously tied: the wound was scarified and treated as the other. This dog did not seem to feel any other injury than that arising from the ligature round his leg. Half an hour after being bitten, the ligature and dressing were removed: the dog soon began to sink, breathe quick, grew convulsed, and died. "The symptoms which arise from the bite of a serpent are, commonly, pain, swellings, and redness in the part bitten: great faintness, with sickness at the stomach, and sometimes vomiting, succeeds; the breathing becomes short and laborious, the pulse low, quick, and interrupted. The wound, which was at first red, becomes livid, black, and gangrenous; the skin of the wounded limb, and sometimes of the whole body, takes a yellow hue; cold sweats and convulsions come on; and the patient sinks sometimes in a few hours, but commonly at the end of two, three, or four days. This is the usual progress when the disease terminates fatally; but, happily, the patient will most commonly recover-a reflection which should moderate the fears of those who happen to be bitten by snakes, and which, at any rate, should as much as possible be resisted, as the depressing passion of fear will, in all cases, assist the operation of the poison." Paley, in his "Natural Theology," marking the attention of the Creator to the three great kingdoms in the animal creation (quadrupeds, birds, and fishes), and to their constitution as such, introduces the fang of a poisonous serpent as a clear and curious example of mechanical contrivance in the great Author of Nature. It is a perforated tooth, loose at the root, in its quiet state lying down flat upon the jaw, but furnished with a muscle, which, with a jerk and by the pluck as it were of a string, suddenly erects it. Under the tooth, close to its root, and communicating with the perforation, lies a small bag containing the venom. When the fang is raised, the closing of the jaw presses its root against the bag underneath, and the force of the compression sends out the fluid with a considerable impetus through the tube in the middle of the tooth. What more unequivocal or effectual apparatus could be devised, for the double purpose of at once inflicting the wound and injecting the poison? Yet, though lodged in the mouth, it is so constituted as, in its quiescent state, not to interfere with the animal's ordinary office of receiving its food. It has been observed, also, that none of the harmless serpents have these fangs, but teeth of an equal size-not moveable as this is, but fixed into the jaw. I believe very few of the water-snakes have these fangs, or are in any degree venomous. In this family is a great variety; some very large, especially those in soundings on the Malabar coast. Many on the Guzerat lakes are of beautiful colours, and their predatory pur suits are extremely curious. They watch the frogs, lizards, young ducks, water-rats, and other animals, when reposing on the leaves of the lotus, or sporting on the margin of a lake, and at a favourable opportunity seize their prey and swallow it whole, though often of a circumference much larger than themselves. These, in their turn, become food to the large aquatic fowl which frequent the lakes, who also swallow them and their contents entire: thus it sometimes happens, that a large duck not only gulps down the living serpent, but one of its brood still existing in its maw. Standing with some friends on the side of a tank, watching the manœuvres of these animals, we saw a Muscovy drake swallow a large snake, which had just before gorged itself with a living prey. The drake came on shore to exercise himself in getting down the snake, which continued for some hours working within the bird's craw, which seemed rather uneasy at its troublesome guest. It is, therefore, most probable there were three different creatures alive at the same time in this singular connexion. The serpent swallows small animals alive without much suction or bruising, and a living frog is frequently found within the snake's stomach. How long the frog continues alive within the serpent, and the serpent within the bird, I cannot say, as the digestive faculties of the stomach may vary in different animals. We know that the ostrich swallows stones, iron, and similar substances; the shark voraciously devours carpenter's tools, pieces of wood, claspknives, and thick ropes, that fall from the ship; and I repeat, that the peacock and aquatic fowl of Guzerat prey upon living serpents and small reptiles of every description. THE FAIRIES' INVITATION. ANONYMOUS. I need scarcely tell my juvenile readers that the following piece, pretty as it is, treats only of an imaginary race of beings, viz., the little elves or fairies, who are the first people in our nursery literature, and by no means the least interesting in the literature of our after-lives. COME, follow, follow me, Come, follow Mab, your queen. Hand in hand, let's dance around, |