SN AKES.— SUPERSTITIONS. 243 at the head of my bod seemed to glide with its eold belly over my face ; in terror I sprung uji, and thought I had been struck over the shin Avith a club, -when the big serpent, now in its death agonies, gave me a stroke with its tail through the open door of the recuba, before which some of the servants sat on their heels telling tales of spirits, snake-kings, &c.

Next morning, when we called on our servants to take down the snakes to skin and stuff them, and told them not to spare the alum and arsenical soap, to our great astonishment they refused to work. AYe soon perceived they had been told by some bigot that this was an unclean Avork for a Mussulman : as at the moment there was nothing better for it, if we Avould not allow the sun to ruin this fine specimen of a python, xe ourselves, though much disgusted, set to work on the job. As soon as the servants saw that Ave Avere not ashamed of such work, first one came and then the other, and took the assala to themselves, and Avorked all the more diligently on our promising them a pot of merissa. This serpent, like all large snakes, is called assala. Not long after, avc received a similar snake of half a foot in diameter, but only nine feet in length, that had a short tail, like the Vipera cerastes ; this they also called assala, and held it to be one of those beforementioned short thick snakes, that swalloAv men. The marking of the skins of the tAvo snakes showed little diiference, but the head of the latter Avas the broader of the tAvo.

As we here meet Avith peojjle of all nations of the Avorld, Ave hear many things, but Avitli all the praise of their OAvn native countr} , hoAvever small, is ever the favourite theme. Abdin Bey told us that in his country, Albania, Avere to be found flying snakes, lie has a black serpent's horn, that seems to be an artificially blackened large tooth, and a stone out of the jawbone of an ass. To make oneself px*oof against poisons, as well as the bite of numerous reptiles, one has only Avith a sabre to slice off a piece of an Aggem, i. e. a heretic, and eat it. The race of Sagara (sorcerers) is much feared, as they are held to have strange poAver ; but there is also an herb, a charm against such sorcerers. In tlu; mountains of the Druses there is yet another kind of magicians, Gessit, who di-aw a circle round tlie beAvitched person, out of Avhich he cannot pass. Superstition, indeed, goes far, and Melek Saat has s 3