Series 1 > Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with his observations on public affairs and other memoranda, 1665-1676

A MOUNTEBANK’S VIPERS
71
in raving1 her belly to win furth, and that wt the horrid peine
she suffers in the bringing furth her young she dies, which also
I have heard Mr. Douglas—preaching out of the last of the
Acts about that Viper that in the He of Malta (wheir they are
a great more dangerous then any wheir else) cleave to Pauls
hand—affirme at least as a thing reported by naturalists, the
etymon of the Greek word seiming to make for this
opinion, since it comes airo tov e^eiv Tryit coSwr/v 2 a habendo
dolorem. Yet he hath demonstrated the falshood of that
opinion: for he showed a black viper also spooted wt yellow
about the lenth of a mans armes, about the grossenesse of a great
inkhorne wholly shappen like a ell3 save only its head wt its
tongue, which was iust like a fork wt 2 teeth, wheir its poison
mainly resydes, that had brought furth 2 young ones that same
very day, which he showed us wt some life in them just like 2
blew, long wormes that are wrinkled ; and notwtstanding the
mother was on life and no apparence of any rupture in hir belly.
To let us sie whow litle he cared for it he took hir and wrapt
it that she might not reach him wt hir head, and put it in his
mouth and held it a litle space wt his lipes; which tho the
common peaple looked on as a great attempt, yet surely it was
nothing, since their is no part of the Viper poisonnable save
only its head and its guts. As for the flech of it, any man may
eat it wtout hazard, for the same very charlatan promised
that ere we left the toune, having decapitated and disbowelled
it, he sould eat the body of it before all that pleased to look
on, which he might easily do. For as litle as he showed him¬
self to care for it, yet he having irritate and angred it, either
by his brizing 4 it in his mouth or by his unattentive handling
of it (for such is the nature of the Viper that tho its poison be
a great deall more subtil, percing and penetrating, and con¬
sequently in some account more dangerous then that of the
hideous coleuure or serpent, yet it wil not readily sting or bit
except they be exasperate, when the others neids no incitations,
but wil pershew a man if they sy him), when he was not taking
heid, it snatcht him by the finger, he hastily shakt it of on the
1 Riving, tearing.
• 2 Mistake for 65uu-r)v, The etymology is fanciful and incorrect.
. 3 Eel. 4 Squeezing.