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 themselves under, that I was a Christian, and therefore it had no
