Somerset maughan

cerastes
is the name under which you 
gentlemen of science know it, and it is the most deadly of all 
Egyptian snakes. It is commonly known as Cleopatra's Asp, for that 
is the serpent which was brought in a basket of figs to the paramour 
of Caesar in order that she might not endure the triumph of 
Augustus.' 
'What are you going to do?' asked Susie. 
He smiled but did not answer. He stepped forward to the centre of 
the tent and fell on his knees. He uttered Arabic words, which Dr. 
Porhoët translated to the others. 
'O viper, I adjure you, by the great God who is all-powerful, to come 
forth. You are but a snake, and God is greater than all snakes. Obey 
my call and come.' 
A tremor went through the goatskin bag, and in a moment a head 
was protruded. A lithe body wriggled out. It was a snake of light 
grey colour, and over each eye was a horn. It lay slightly curled. 
'Do you recognize it?' said Oliver in a low voice to the doctor. 
'I do.' 
The charmer sat motionless, and the woman in the dim background 
ceased her weird rubbing of the drum. Haddo seized the snake and 
opened its mouth. Immediately it fastened on his hand, and the 
reptile teeth went deep into his flesh. Arthur watched him for signs 
of pain, but he did not wince. The writhing snake dangled from his 
hand. He repeated a sentence in Arabic, and, with the peculiar 
suddenness of a drop of water falling from a roof, the snake fell to 
the ground. The blood flowed freely. Haddo spat upon the bleeding 
place three times, muttering words they could not hear, and three 

---

times he rubbed the wound with his fingers. The bleeding stopped. 
He stretched out his hand for Arthur to look at. 
'That surely is what a surgeon would call healing by first intention,' 
he said. 
Burdon was astonished, but he was irritated, too, and would not 
allow that there was anything strange in the cessation of the flowing 
blood. 
'You haven't yet shown that the snake was poisonous.' 
'I have not finished yet,' smiled Haddo. 
He spoke again to the Egyptian, who gave an order to his wife. 
Without a word she rose to her feet and from a box took a white 
rabbit. She lifted it up by the ears, and it struggled with its four 
quaint legs. Haddo put it in front of the horned viper. Before anyone 
could have moved, the snake darted forward, and like a flash of 
lightning struck the rabbit. The wretched little beast gave a slight 
scream, a shudder went through it, and it fell dead. 
Margaret sprang up with a cry. 
'Oh, how cruel! How hatefully cruel!' 
'Are you convinced now?' asked Haddo coolly. 
The two women hurried to the doorway. They were frightened and 
disgusted. 
Oliver Haddo was left alone with the snake-charmer. 

---

5 
Dr Porhoët had asked Arthur to bring Margaret and Miss Boyd to 
see him on Sunday at his apartment in the Île Saint Louis; and the 
lovers arranged to spend an hour on their way at the Louvre. Susie, 
invited to accompany them, preferred independence and her own 
reflections. 
To avoid the crowd which throngs the picture galleries on holidays, 
they went to that part of the museum where ancient sculpture is 
kept. It was comparatively empty, and the long halls had the 
singular restfulness of places where works of art are gathered 
together. Margaret was filled with a genuine emotion; and though 
she could not analyse it, as Susie, who loved to dissect her state of 
mind, would have done, it strangely exhilarated her. Her heart was 
uplifted from the sordidness of earth, and she had a sensation of 
freedom which was as delightful as it was indescribable. Arthur had 
never troubled himself with art till Margaret's enthusiasm taught 
him that there was a side of life he did not realize. Though beauty 
meant little to his practical nature, he sought, in his great love for 
Margaret, to appreciate the works which excited her to such 
charming ecstasy. He walked by her side with docility and listened, 
not without deference, to her outbursts. He admired the correctness 
of Greek anatomy, and there was one statue of an athlete which 
attracted his prolonged attention, because the muscles were 
indicated with the precision of a plate in a surgical textbook. When 
Margaret talked of the Greeks' divine repose and of their blitheness, 
he thought it very clever because she said it; but in a man it would 
have aroused his impatience. 
Yet there was one piece, the charming statue known as