GOLD -DIGGING ANTS .AND NOXIOUS SERPENTS 37 the noxious nature of the reptiles. At the period of the inundations they retreat from the plains to the settlements, which are not covered with water, and swarm in the houses. For this reason the inhabitants raise their beds to some height from the ground, and are sometimes compelled to abandon their dwellings, when they are infested by great multitudes of these creatures; and, if a large proportion of these multi- tudes were not destroyed by the waters, the country would be uninhabitable. Both the minuteness of some animals and the excessive magnitude of others are causes of danger; the former, because it is difficult to guard against their attacks; the latter, on account of their strength, for snakes are to be seen of sixteen cubits in length. Charmers go about the country and are supposed to cure serpent bites. This seems to com- prise almost their whole art of medicine, for disease is not common among them, owing to their frugal man- ner of life and to the absence of wine; whenever dis- eases do occur, they are treated by the Sophistai, or wise men. Aristoboulos says that he saw no animals of these pretended magnitudes, except a snake which was nine cubits and a span in length, and I myself saw in Egypt one that was nearly of the same size and had been brought from India. Aristoboulus also says that he saw many adders of a much smaller size, and asps and large scorpions. None of these, however, are so nox- ious as the slender small serpents, a span long, which are found concealed in tents, in jars, and in hedges.
