[89]. Atl. Geogr. p. 319.
DIODORUS SICULUS observes how many Regions have been deserted, for this reason; both People and Cattle being driven away by an Army of Scorpions, and their Allies.
In the Canary-Islands, these venemous Animals are more dreaded than the Pestilence. ’Tis said they are hunted and taken by the Turks, who prepare the Oil of Scorpions from them[[90]]. In India, about the Arrahban-Lake, the Country has been intirely dispeopled by these mischievous Creatures. Ibid.
[90]. Conrad. Gesner. p. 29.
In Times of War, Serpents have been prest into the Service. Thus Heliogabalus (Emperor of Rome, so called because he was Priest of the Sun before his Election) having, by his Sacerdotal Incantators, or sacred Conjurers, gathered together several Serpents, contrived a Method to turn them loose, before day, among his Enemies, which soon put them into a terrible Hurry, and a Motion, that was a Trial for their Lives; the Sight of the crooked Serpent being far more dreadful, than the Whizzing of a straight Arrow[[91]]. The same Author informs us of Snakes thrown by a Sling-Staff into the Camp of the Barbarians, which did great Execution.
[91]. Gesner. de Scorp.
King Prusias being overcome by King Eumenes, by Land, and intending to try his Fate by Sea, Hannibal, by a new Invention, made him victorious. The Stratagem was this: Hannibal having procured a great Number of Serpents, put them into earthen Vessels; and by another Device, and in midst of the Engagement, convey’d them into Antiochus’s Fleet, which proved more dreadful than Fire-balls, and feather’d Weapons, that flew amongst them. At first, it seemed ridiculous to the Romans, that they should arm themselves, and fight with earthen Pots; but when they were broken, an Army of Snakes rush’d out, which so terrified the Marines, that they immediately yielded the Victory to Prusias, the Carthaginian Hero’s Friend[[92]].
[92]. Justini Hist. lib. xxxii. ad finem.
We read in History, how Juno, out of her hatred to Hercules, sent two dreadful Serpents to devour him in the Cradle, which he soon crush’d with his Infant-Hands.
It was common among the Antient Swedes, to send out certain Flies (which they pretended to be their Familiars) to plague their Enemies. They also made Magical Balls for the same purpose, boasting how they thereby conveyed Serpents into their Enemies Bodies.