[28] Plin. I. 6. c. 31. This subject will be discussed in the Fifth Part of our work; being much too extensive to admit of elucidation in a note.--E.
It is reported that the inhabitants of the country at the Cape of Good Hope are great witches, and by inchantment bring certain serpents so much under command, that they preserve their churches, churchyards, gardens, orchards, barns, and cattle, both from wild beasts and thieves. When these serpents see any person doing or intending to do harm, they wind themselves in such a manner around them as to make them prisoners, and then command their young ones to give notice to their masters, that they may come and secure the thieves. But if the thieves be numerous, or the wild beasts of too much strength, so that the serpents dare not encounter them, they go to their masters house, and if it happen to be in the night, they give many strokes with their tails, so as to awaken their masters, that they may provide for their defence[29].
[29] Hasty readers will have the justice to give the honour of this story to Galvano.--E.
A certain Italian, named Aloisius Cadamosta, relates, that when he was upon the discovery of Guinea, and resided in the house of Bisboral, the grandson of king Budomel, he heard one night, when in bed, a great noise and many blows given about the house, upon which Bisboral arose and went out; and, upon his return, Cadamosta demanded of him where he had been, and he answered that he had been with his cobras or snakes, which called him[30]. In the Indies there are many snakes, and some of them very full of poison; yet the Indians carry them about their necks, and put them in their bosoms, and under their arms, without fear or injury; and at certain sounds, the snakes will dance, and do many other strange things at command.
[30] This story will be found hereafter very differently related by Cada Mosto himself, but with a sufficient spice of the marvellous.--E.
I was informed by a certain Portuguese, who had been beyond the Cape of Good Hope, towards Sofala, Quiloa, and Melinda, that there were certain birds in that country, which would come to the negroes on a call, and as the negroes moved on through the woods, the birds would do the same from tree to tree, till at length they would alight on a tree whence they would not remove: And, on examining that tree, the negroes were sure to find wax and honey, but knew not whether it grew there naturally or not[31]. In the same country, they find much wax and honey in ant-holes, made by the ants, but somewhat bitter. In the seas of that coast, there are certain fish, known to the fishermen, which commonly swim upright in the water, having the faces and breasts of women[32].
[31] The Honey-guide, or Cuculus Indicator, will be noticed more particularly in the Travels through the Colony of the Cape.--E.
[32] The Philosophers of the nineteenth century have fortunately rediscovered the Mermaid in the north of Scotland! Hitherto, wonderful things used to be confined to barbarous regions and ignorant ages.--E.
In the year 355 before Christ, the Spaniards are said to have gone by sea to the flats of India, Arabia, and the adjoining coasts, to which they carried various merchandizes in great ships; and sailing to the north- west they came to certain flats which are covered by the tide, and left bare by the ebb, where they caught many tunnies of great size; which fishing turned out to their great profit, as they were very abundant and much esteemed[33].
[33] Arist. de Mirand. Strabo, I. 2. p. 68.