LIZARDS. 



419 



is one of tliose animals mixed np in the superstitious traditions of the ancients, and 

 still reganlod by some with the greatest awe, being to them the king of the reptile 

 race, bearing a crown as a symbol of his sovereign rule. It was thought that he had 

 no regular occupation, and that he feasted on an egg laid liy a cock and inculiatcd by 

 a snake, though that the egg was thus incubated was denied by some ' naturalists,' 

 who maintained that a toad performed that arduous task. From the glance of this 



^'^^«« ^i!^Wj^ 



Fig. 242. — Basiliscits mitratus^ basilisk. 



mighty reptile's eye, death and destruftion spread. " This i)oison," writes an author, 

 " infecteth the air, and the air so infected killeth all living things, ami likewise all 

 green things, fruits and plants of the earth ; it burncth \\\> the gr.ass whereupon it 

 goeth or creepeth, and the fouls of the air fall down dead when they come near his 

 den or lodging. Sonietinies he bitetli a man or boast, and by that wound llie blood 

 turneth into choler, and so the whole body becometh yellow or gold, presently killing 

 all that touch it or come near it." The cock was the onlv animal before whom this 



