Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations.

  • Pehr Kalm
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    them, med bånkar och bord uti, which were now all full of swarming crowds of people, folk-skåckar, of both sexes. [T. I. p. 404.] The 16th May, 1748. Ormar handterade med händer. Snakes handled with hands. We saw to-day as well as on the previous days a common man clad in rags, who had a large collection of living Vipers and snakes, Hugg-ormar och Snokar, which he went and carried about in the streets, dem han gick och bar omkring på gatorna, to show to folk for money, at visa åt folk för penningar. He could handle them with his hands quite quietly, and without the snakes offering in the least to bite him, utan at Ormarne bödo det ringaste til, at hugga honom. He had a bag, påse, in which he laid them, and when anyone gave him “ en halfpence,” he took them out with his hands, either one after another or also by the hand- full, as many as he could hold. Often to awaken more astonishment, lie stuffed either a viper or a snake whole into his mouth, antingen en Huggorm eller en Snok helt och hållen in uti munnen på sig, and kept his mouth shut for a little while, and then opened his mouth and let the snake crawl out of it. When he slipped them on the ground they sought to run away. He said he had sometimes been bitten in the thumb by them when he had caught them ; but he knew such an antidote for it, et sådant bot derföre, that it could not do him any harm ; yet he would not make known what it con- sisted in. That the snakes, snokarne, did not do him any harm was no worider, but how he managed with the vipers, men huru han bar sig åt med Huggor- marna, I know not. This I saw, that they not only did not offer to bite him but also when a stick was pointed
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