238. Ottar of Roses.

In the Histoire Generale de l'Empire du Mogol, (T. 1, p. 327,) compiled by Catrou the Jesuit from Manouchi's pa pers, this perfume is said to have been discovered by accident. Nur-Jaham, the favourite wife of the Mogul JahanGuir, among her other luxuries had a small canal of rose water. As she was walking with the Mogul upon its banks, they perceived a thin film upon the wa◄ ter,..it was an essential oil made by the heat of the sun. They were delighted with its exquisite odour, and means were immediately taken for preparing by art a substance like that which had been thus fortuitously produced.

239. Poison of Serpents.

"I know, (says Kicherer,) it is commonly reported that the venom of serpents may be swallowed without danger, but our experience leads us to believe the contrary." He relates, that in cross

ing a desert in time of drought, with a large party of his converts, they travelled till the third day without finding a drop of water. At length they came to a very small pool, just sufficient to assuage their own thirst, but not that of their animals. A girl was just going to drink, "when, he says, to our great mortification, we perceived that it had been poisoned by the Boschemen, for we discovered many heads of serpents swimming in it. Water thus poisoned will soon cause a person who has drunk it to become so giddy that he cannot walk upright, and if an antidote be not speedily administered, he will certainly expire in a few hours. It is however true, that Boschemen, being properly prepared, will drink the poisoned water without prejudice to their health*."

If this excellent Missionary had said that he himself saw such an effect pro

Transactions of the Missionary Society, Vol. 2, p. 34.

duced by this poisoned water, I should without hesitation have believed him, however contrary the fact might have appeared to the received opinion. But his experience, as he calls it, goes no farther than to show that the Hottentots believe water may thus be poisoned :.. they are likely enough to think so, and in those who having the same belief have drunk of the water, there can be little doubt that imagination would produce sickness, and possibly in some cases death.

What Kicherer says of the Boschemen being properly prepared, is worthy of more consideration. Thunberg* tells us that "the Hottentots and Boschemen are said to fortify themselves against poisoned darts, and the bite of venomous animals, by suffering themselves to be gradually bitten by serpents, scorpions, and other venomous

* English Translation, Vol. 2, p. 163.

crea

tures, till they become accustomed to it; but these trials sometimes cost them their lives. The urine of an Hottentot thus prepared is esteemed an excellent antidote, or counterpoison, and is therefore drank by such as have been bitten by serpents."

If the former part of this account could be relied on, it should seem that these savages were acquainted with a method of producing by inoculation of animal poison a milder disease, which, like the vaccine, rendered the system proof against a more formidable virus. There is a curious passage in the adven tures of Robert Drury, which bears, though distantly, upon this subject. An insect like a cow-tick, called paropongee, is found in that part of Madagascar which the Virzimbers possess, and in no other part of the country. Its bite is said to occasion an illness which lasts six or eight weeks, but to which no person is subject a second time, and the

Virzimbers took care not to destroy this insect because they found it a good protection against their neighbours who used to invade them.

But there is certainly another mode of becoming proof against serpents, besides that of inoculation. Bruce tells us that the mode by which the Arabs render themselves secure against the bite of the serpent is by chewing a certain root, and washing themselves with an infusion of certain plants in water. "I have seen many, (he says,) thus armed for a season, do pretty much the same feats as those that possessed the exemption naturally: the drugs were given me, and I several times armed myself, as I thought resolved to try the experiment; but my heart always failed me when I came to the trial, because among these wretched people it was a pretence they might very probably have sheltered theu:selves under, that I was a Christian, and therefore it had no