[130]. Nulla ingenti, sed magna vis animi inflamantis ut me ipse non teneam.
’Tis true, that wonderful Things have been done by Words, but how verbal Charms operated upon Serpents, wants Explication: Of some Inchanters ’tis said, that by vocal and instrumental Sounds, they have charm’d Rats, Mice and Serpents, some into a stupid State, and others into a flexible submissive State.
A remarkable Instance in Rats we have in the publick Records of Hamelen, (an antient City on the River Weser in Germany, about 28 Miles S. E. of Hanover) where the following strange Account is register’d, viz.
That in June 26. 1284, a certain Stranger undertook to destroy an Army of Rats with which the Town had been long pester’d, on promise of such a Reward; and immediately playing on his Pipe and Tabret, the Rats march’d out, and follow’d the Musick to the River, where they were all drown’d: But being denied the Reward, he threaten’d Revenge; and next day he went about with the same Musick, and most Children in the Town follow’d the Piper to the Mouth of a great Cave on a neighbouring Hill call’d Koppelberg, where he and they entered, and were never heard of after.
In remembrance of this sad Catastrophe, the Citizens for many Years after, dated all their publick Writings from the Day they lost their Children, as appears by their old Deeds and Records: They still call the Street thro’ which the Children went out, Tabret-street; and at the Mouth of the Cave there is a Monument of Stone, with a Latin Inscription, giving the Particulars of this tragical Story.
As to the other Instance, viz. Serpents charm’d into a ductile manageable State, ’tis thus accounted for; viz. Serpents, they say, are strangely influenced by the Smell of those Emanations, proceeding from the Cornus, or Dog-tree (why not the Cornelian-Cherry, antiently dedicated to Apollo?) and that by a Wand or Rod taken from it, they are thrown into an obsequious Temper—
“When touch’d by a Rod from that Tree, they are immediately intoxicated, but so as to be able to follow the Motion of the Rod; but whether by reason of some great Disproportion or Incompossibility, between these subtile Effluvia and the Temperament of the vital, spiritual Substance of the Serpent, or by what other way, we are not told[[131]]. The Sassafras-tree, a Native of America, is call’d Cornus also, whose Wood is very odorous and fragrant.”
Now, say these Gentlemen why should it seem impossible, that he who understands this invincible Enmity, and how to manage a Rod of the Cornus with Cunning and Dexterity (having first intoxicated a Serpent by the Touch thereof) should during that Fit make it observe, and readily conform to all the various Motions of the Wand, so as that the unlearned Spectators, perceiving the Serpent to approach the Inchanter, as he moves the Wand near to himself, or to retreat from him, as he put the Wand from him, or turn round and dance as the Rod is mov’d to and fro, or lie still as in a Trance, as the Rod is held still over it; and all this Time, the People knowing nothing of the Virtue in the Rod, are easily deluded into a Belief, that the whole Scene is supernatural, and the main Energy radiated in those Words or Charms, which the Impostor with great Ceremony and Gravity of Aspect mutters forth, the better to disguise his Legerdemain, and dissemble Nature in the colour of a Miracle.
[131]. Charlton.
The Rattle-snakes in America are said to secure their Prey by Incantation; for they have the Power or Art, (I know not which to call it, says my Author) to charm Squirrels, Hares, Partridges, or any such Thing, in such a manner, that they run directly into their Mouths: This I have seen, adds he, by a Squirrel and one of the Rattle-snakes; and other Snakes have in some measure the same Power[[132]].