ouste resorts on such occasions to the _Ophiorhiza mungos_, whose
root is reputed a specific for serpents' bites. This is a Cinchonaceous
plant, so intensely bitter that it is called by the Malays by a name
which signifies earth-gall.[189]

Captain Forbes in his interesting account of Dahomey, alludes to these
combats, which he says he has witnessed in India. He says that the
serpent (Cobra) has usually the advantage at first, but the Mangouste
retreating, devours some wild herb, returns and presently conquers.

Sir Emerson Tennent inclines to refer the immunity of the Mangouste to
an inherent property. He remarks that the mystery of its power has been
"referred to the supposition that there may be some peculiarity in its
organisation which renders it _proof against_ the poison of the serpent.
It remains for future investigation to determine how far this conjecture
is founded in truth; and whether in the blood of the Mongoos there
exists any element or quality which acts as a prophylactic. Such
exceptional provisions are not without precedent in the animal economy:
the hornbill feeds with impunity on the deadly fruit of the _Strychnos_;
the milky juice of some species of _Euphorbia_, which is harmless to
oxen, is invariably fatal to the zebra; and the tsetse fly, the pest of
South Africa, whose bite is mortal to the ox, the dog, and the horse, is
harmless to man and the untamed creatures of the forest."[190]

Our own hedgehog possesses the privilege of being unharmed by the venom
of the viper, as is manifest in its frequent contests with it. Mr Slater
has frequently seen combats between these animals, which always
terminated in favour of the hedgehog. The latter seemed perfectly
regardless of the many bites it received on the snout.[191]

To return to Bruce's statements. After describing the little horned
viper of Egypt, the _Cerastes_, and its insidious manner of creeping
towards its victim with its head averted, till within reach, when it
suddenly springs and strikes, he goes on to say: "I saw one of them at
Cairo crawl up the side of a box, in which there were many, and there
lie still as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought them
to us came near him, and though in a very disadvantageous posture,
sticking, as it were, perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped
near the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man's
forefinger and thumb, so as to bring the blood. The fellow shewed no