[119]. Ideo Seneca, ad umbram exsurgere dixit.
When provok’d, the Neck of this Creature swells, and the Wound then given, is most dangerous. Its Teeth are of considerable length, growing out of the Mouth like the Tusks of a Boar. The Historian says, that two of the longest Teeth have little Cavities in them, covered with a thin Skin, that slides up when it bites, by which means the poisonous Liquid runs out, and drops into the Puncture; after which, it recovers its Station.
In America, says a celebrated Historian, are found Asps with Stings in the Tail, wherewith they strike and kill[[120]].
[120]. Jonstonus Hist. Nat. de Serpentibus. p. 15.
The Banks of Nilus abound with Asps, who have Sagacity enough to remove their Habitations to a place of Safety, several days before that River overflows the Rising-Grounds about it: ’Tis also said the Crocodile and Tortoise recede with their Eggs, to a Situation not accessible by that mighty Flood; a Flood that makes the Land of Egypt, a Region of Fertility, a Flood dreaded by these Animals, and ador’d by the Egyptians, those Sons of Contradiction, who consecrated their Animals to the Gods, and then worshipped them, and upon Occasions kill’d them. (Can we behold such Instincts in the Crocodile, &c. without acknowledging the Divine Wisdom that ordain’d ’em!) No Nation more knowing, and more sottish, e. g. Upon the Statue of Minerva, or the Goddess Isis, was this Inscription, viz. I was she that was, that am, and shall be, and that am every thing. Which being an exact Interpretation of the Word Jehovah, and the same Definition the Almighty appropriates to himself, I can’t, says the Learned Jurieu, conceive, how a Nation that was arrived to such a high Degree of Knowledge, should have worship’d Bullocks—as Gods.
PLUTARCH gives a strange relation of them, viz. that in case of any extraordinary Calamity, as War, Plague, Famine, the Egyptian Priests used to threaten the sacred Beasts most horribly: If they failed to help them, they whipt them till the Blood follow’d; and if the Calamity did still continue, they kill’d those sacred Beasts by way of Punishment[[121]]. The Reverse of this is given us in a Clan of Tartars, who, when exposed to any imminent Calamity, sacrifice their Priests, in order to intercede for them with the Gods in the other World.
[121]. Jurieu from Plut. de Is. & Osir.
It has been said, that the Asp, when exasperated, did, with an erected Head, cast out of its Mouth liquid Poison; but it now appears, it darts it only by its Bite, or by Poison taken from it by Force, and poured into a Wound made by another; and both the Wounds so made, soon terminate in an easy pleasant Exit; which is supposed to be the reason why Queen Cleopatra chose this kind of Death, that is, to poison herself by an Aspick Dose. This reminds me of a certain Herb I have read of, in Arabia, which (according to the Tradition) if a Man slept upon, he died in his Sleep without any Pain.
A certain learned Pen, makes this Remark upon Cleopatra’s Case, viz. that she was not bit by an Asp, as some have asserted, but did that which was more secret and sure; that is, after she had bit her own Arm, infused Poison into the Wound, expressed before-hand from an Asp by Irritation, and preserved in a Phial for that purpose: Or, as Dio says, she wounded her Arm with a Needle, or Dressing-pin, and then poured the Poison into the bleeding Wound. This seems probable, because no Serpent was found in her Chamber or near it.
The Queen, in order to find the most easy Passage out of this Life, made an Experiment upon Criminals by various kinds of Poison, and Application of diverse sorts of Serpents, and found nothing came up to Aspick Poison, which throws Persons into a pleasant Sleep, in which they die[[122]].