mstances, of
drawing them, as if by an irresistible influence, to their known and
dreaded destruction. This fascinating power has been most generally
attributed to serpents, and is supposed to reside in a peculiar glare
and fixity of the eyes, which appear to mesmerise the victims. If the
gaze be interrupted, _on either part_, though but for a moment, it is
supposed that the spell is broken. Is there any such power? or is it
merely one of the many myths with which popular natural history is still
burdened, and which it is the province of real science to explode? Let
us gather together a few of the facts on which the opinion rests.

I am not sure whether I ought to reckon as such the following statement,
for I do not know the value of the authority on which it rests. It is,
however, sufficiently curious.

Dr Bird, a somewhat appropriate authority in this case, mentions an
incident which happened in America. "Two boys lighted by chance upon a
large black snake; upon which one of them resolved to ascertain whether
the snake, so celebrated for its powers, could fascinate him. He
advanced a few steps nearer the snake, and made a stand, steadily
looking on him. When the snake observed him in that situation, he raised
his head with a quick motion, and the lad says, that at that instant
there appeared something to flash in his eyes, which he could compare to
nothing more similar than the rays of light thrown from a glass or
mirror when turned in the sun-shine; he said it dazzled his eyes; at the
same time the colours appeared very beautiful ... he felt as if he was
in a whirlpool, and that every turn brought him nearer to the centre.
His comrade seeing him approach nearer to the snake, immediately ran and
killed it."[164]

There is, however, better authority than this for the belief in
serpent-mesmerism. Professor Kalm states of the Rattlesnake of North
America, that it will frequently lie at the bottom of a tree on which a
squirrel is seated. The snake fixes his eyes upon the little animal, and
from that moment it cannot escape: it begins a doleful outcry, runs up
the tree a little way, comes down again, then goes up, and afterwards
comes still lower. The snake continues at the bottom of the tree, with
its eyes fixed on the squirrel; and its attention is so entirely taken
up, that a person accidentally approaching may make a considerable
noise, without so much as the snake's turning about. The squirrel comes
lower, and at l