This Species of Serpents resembles the Esculapian, that has been fed in some Families; and when provoked to use the Teeth, the Danger is no more than that from a Bee, whose Weapons are defensive, and not employed without Provocation: In Winter they retire into subterraneous Spaces, where they lie dormant, till the vernal Sun invites them out.
Though they propagate as Vipers, it does not appear that they sit on their Eggs, as most oviparous Animals do; for we often find a Brood of young Serpents in old Hedges and Dunghills, and no visible Sign of a common Passage to and from the Nest.
XXI. The Elephantia Serpents are those whose Wounds cast People into a Leprosy or Roughness of Skin, like that of an Elephant: Hence Leprosy proceeding from inward Disorders, is call’d Elephantia or Elephantiasis, which is a cutaneous Disease, makes the Skin scurfy and rough, in Colour resembling that of an Animal, that in Bulk and Intelligence is superior to all four-footed Beasts.
Elephants in India are said to be about 12 Foot high, and of a Mouse-colour, the Skin not only rough, but hard, so hard, that it is not penetrable by a Sword; their Eyes like those of Swine; two Teeth hang out beyond the rest, which are Ivory.
A memorable Instance of this gigantick Creature’s Understanding, we had a few Years ago at Newcastle in Staffordshire, where a Man travelling with an Elephant for a Show, one Morning conducting that Creature to water, happened to pass by a Taylor’s Shop, that was working at an open Window, and so near it, that the Taylor had the Courage to prick him with his Needle: The Beast did not then seem to resent the Affront, but when he returned from the Water, which he having artfully muddled, took into his Trunk; as he came back by the Taylor’s Window, spouted it in his Face, which very much disobliged a Piece of Scarlet-cloth on his Table.
Plate 4th.
That Elephants are subject to Wrath and Revenge, is evident from other Instances: e. g. We read of an Elephant, that when he was brought into a certain Theatre, saw, as he pass’d along, a Keeper of wild Beasts, sitting in the Market-place, whom he suddenly killed: And that the occasion of this Revenge was, because the said Keeper about ten Years before had struck him with a Sword in that same Place[[185]].
[185]. Michael Glycas’s Annal. par. 1. in the Memoirs of the Royal Society, vol. v, vi. p. 280, 281. ibid. p. 281.
And Acosta writes, that a Soldier in the Town of Cochine, had thrown the Kernel of a Nut at an Elephant, which the Animal took up and carefully hid: Some Days after, the Elephant seeing the said Soldier pass by, threw it in his Face, and went away leaping and dancing. Ibid.