answered Macallan. "The comparisons of Scripture are all derived from
eastern scenery and eastern customs. Do you not recollect the words of
the Psalmist, who compareth the wicked to the deaf adder, who `will not
harken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely'?"

"I recollect it now," answered Courtenay; "from which I infer, that as
snakes are not caught for nothing, they danced before King Solomon."

"Perhaps they did, or at least in his time."

The man carefully removed the cloth from the top of the chatty, and
watching his opportunity, seized the snake by the neck, who immediately
wound itself round his arm. Holding it in that position, he rapidly
chewed leaves which he had wrapped in the cloth which encircled his
loins. After having laid a heap of the masticated leaves near him, he
swallowed a large quantity, and then applied the head of the snake to
his left ear, which the animal immediately bit so as to draw blood. It
was a cobra di capella of the largest size, being nearly six feet long.
As soon as the snake had bitten him, he replaced it in the chatty, and
at the same time that he continued to swallow the leaves, rubbed the
wounded part with some of the heap which he had masticated, and laid
down beside him.

There was a silence, and a degree of painful anxiety, on the part of the
spectators, during the process. The man appeared to be sick and giddy,
and lay down, but gradually recovered, and making a low salaam, received
his largess, handed the snake, in the chatty, to Macallan, and departed.

"A most curious fact--an excessively curious fact," observed the doctor,
putting up his tablets, and a handful of the leaves, which he had taken
the precaution to obtain.

"Now, gentlemen, dinner all ready," observed the interpreter.

The dinner had been spread out on the little mount pointed out by
Courtenay. It rose, isolated from the plain, to the height of about
thirty feet, with a steep and regular ascent on every side. The summit
was flat, and in the centre the acacia waved its graceful and pendent
flowers to the breeze, each moment altering the position of the bright
spot of sunshine, which pierced through its branches, and reflected on
the grass beneath. The party (consisting of the officers of the ship,
the grave deputy, and his immediate suite, about fifteen in number),
whose appetites were keen from their morning exercise and excitement,
gladly hailed the summons, and seating themse