The idea of a poison, as the old proverb above tells us, being a corrective for itself is no new idea, for we read how in ancient times, for example, the Ophiogenes of the Hellespont were renowned for their immunity to snake poison, and one account of them states particularly that they fed upon serpents, and that to this diet they probably owed their reputed magical art in withstanding the action of serpent venom. Again, a traveller in Egypt, Hasselquist, tells us how the serpent-charmers there eat serpents, making them into a kind of broth, and that invariably before starting off to catch these reptiles they partake of some of it. In a paper by Mr. T. R. Rao on the Yánádés tribe of the Nellore district, Madras Presidency, the author mentions that these strange people have, amongst other characteristics, absolutely no fear in catching cobras, which they draw out of their holes without any alarm as to their fangs, and that they appear to protect themselves against the effects of snake-bites by swallowing the poison-sacs of snakes. Bruce describes how he saw a serpent-charmer in Cairo who allowed himself to be bitten by a viper between the forefinger and the thumb, and made no endeavour whatever to apply remedies, neither did he exhibit the slightest anxiety as to the consequences. That this was no trick, and that the viper was really possessed of all its deadly faculties at the time it bit the man, was proved by the fact that a pelican subsequently bitten by the same animal died in thirteen minutes. Bruce also tells of a man who "with his naked hand took a viper from a number of others lying at the bottom of a tub. He put it on his head, then in his breast, and tied it about his neck like a necklace. Next it was made to bite a hen, which died in a few minutes; and, to complete the experiment, the man took it by the neck, and, beginning at the tail, ate it as one does a carrot or a stick of celery, without any seeming repugnance." A most interesting account of snake-charmers is given by Drummond Hay, in his book on _Western Barbary_, in which he relates his experiences with some of these wonderful individuals belonging to the sect called Eisowy. Members of this sect, he mentions, frequently handled scorpions and poisonous reptiles without fear or hesitation, and they were never attacked by them. He was present at one of their exhibitions of feats with snakes in which they both allowed themselves to be bitten and provoked the snake to bite them. The charmer thus bitten then in his turn ate or chewed the reptile, which, he remarks, writhing with pain, bit him in the neck and hands till it was actually destroyed by the Eisowy's teeth.