>775- called Gantze Craal, I found that lie had likewife filled feveral bottles, in order to tfeit« hifofelf and a couple of rafcals of his own kidney, a baftard and a Have, who had come thither with a waggdm As the mifchievous difpofition o f the favagfes is carried even to madnefs, and becomes extremely dangerous when they are overloaded with liquor, I took the brandy from them; hut they had already drank themfelves to fuch a pitch of frenzy and boldiiefs, as to give me to underhand, that, in cafe they parted With their beloved brandy, they thought o f nothing but revenge and murder. As we had feen a Chriftian equally guilty with them, we thought we might and ought to bear with them till the next morning, with all the coolnefs and prudence, which the profecution o f our journey and the prefent pofture of our affairs required. In the mean time I was obliged to fleep all night long m my waggon to take care of my brandy, by which means I got freih cold; for this fame fafiii of Gantze Craal, lay on the other fide o f the river Zonder End. The next morning we forced our valiant pot-companions, who were now fober, to aik pardon; and at noon, having found a ferpent, we put it alive into the calk, in the prefence of every one. My comrade now told them, they might drink as much as they pleafed without lett or hinderance, and added, with a carelefs air, that in that cafe he ihould hope foon to have the pleafure of feeing them burft with poifon, with other things to that purpofe. Thefe conditions they did not venture to accept; but gave us plainly to perceive, that they env i e d the venomous creature the pleafure o f being drowned in in fo delicious an element. I now, however, fecured my lock in the beft manner I was able, that I might not lofe anymore of my fpirits, in which I, wanted to preferve animals o f all forts. Since this, I have heard it reported of the Hottentots living a good way up in the country, that they are not afraid o f the .leaft ill effefts enfuing from fwallowing the poifon o f ferpents, even in an undiluted ftate : but 011 the contrary, look upon it as a medicine, and a pre- fervative againft the dangerous; confequences enfuing from the bite of thefe animals. How the uncultivated Hottentots ihould ¡arrive to the knowledge, that the poifon of ferpents may be fwallowed without danger, it is not eafy to conjecture, at leait not with a fufficient degree o f probability ; but it appears to me moft likely, that the Europeans and Afiatics were firft apprized of this faft, by fuch as had in vain attempted to take away their own or others lives by means o f the poifon of ferpents & So that I had ftill reafon to fear, that the Hottentots would not be able to keep them- felves from this delicious liquor, though they knew that there was a venomous animal preferved in it. I had long before this experienced fomething o f the kind at Bott-rivier, where a Have had I intoxicated himfelf by drinking fome fpirits out of a little veffel in which I kept a toad and the * Noxia ferpcntum eft admiflt '/anguine peftis ; . Mor/u virus habent, & fatum dente mirantur : Pocula morte careni. L u c a n . L . IX . v. 6 14— 616. ■So long ago at leaft, as the times in which this poet wrote, has it been obieryed, that the poifop o f ferpents has no effeift, except it be mixed with the blood; and indeed, the PJyili are irrefragable proofs, that this property o f ferpents has been known in Africa from time immemorial. They fucked the poiion out o f the wounds o f perfohs bitten by thefe animals, and handled and carefled them, as the modern Egyptians do at this prefent time, without being hurt by: them in'the ldaft: Superincumbens pallentia vulnera lambit, f t h i Ore venena trahens. ' "■ Ibid. 933. Vol. I. A a foetus ■775- Augult. sXVO
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