Chap. 3o.J SERPENTS. 285 



assume the colour of the soil in which they conceal themselves. 

 The different species of them are innumerable. The cerastes -"^ 

 has little horns, often four in number, projecting from the 

 body, by the movement of which it attracts birds, while the 

 rest of its body lies concealed." The amphisbaena'^ has two 

 heads,"^ that is to say, it has a second one at the tail, as 

 though one mouth were too little for the discharge of all its 

 venom. Some serpents have scales, some a mottled skin, and 

 they are all possessed of a deadly poison. The jaculus^" darts 

 from the branches of trees ; and it is not only to our feet that 

 the serpent is formidable, for these fly through the air even, 

 just as though they were hurled from an engine.®^ The neck 

 of the asp^- pufts out,^^ and there is no remedy whatever 



"^ The cerastes, or horned serpent, is mentioned by Lucan, in his de- 

 icription of serpents, Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 716. One of the Scholiasts on 

 [iUcan relates a story that when Helen was eloping with Paris, she trod on 

 ;he back of a cerastes, and broke it ; from which circumstance, the whole 

 •ace moved with a crooked course. 



''' Cuvier has observed this animal burpng itself in the sand, and has 

 een the motion of its horns, but does not credit its alleged power of at- 

 racting birds ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 412. — B. 



'^ The amphisbsena is mentioned by Lucan, B. ix. 1. 719. " The dan- 

 ■erous amphisbaeua, that moves ou at either of its heads." 



"* The account of the two heads is obviously incorrect ; the idea has 

 risen from the two extremities being nearly of the same size and appear- 

 nce. It has been supposed, that there were certain serpents, with tlie 

 ■ower of moving with equal facility in both directions ; and that the name, 

 vfKpifyjSaiva, was derived from this circumstance. — B. 



**' Lucan mentions the jaculus, B. ix. 1. 720, and 1. 822. In the last 

 assage he says : " Behold ! afar, around the trunk of a barren tree, a fierce 

 srpeut — Africa calls it the jaculus — wreathes itself, and then darts forth, 

 nd through the head and pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight : 

 othing does venom there atfect, death seizes him through the wound. It 

 'as then understood how slowly fly the stones which the sHng hurls, how 

 uggishly whizzes the flight of the Scythian arrow." 



^^ There is an account of the jaculus, or, as it is called in Greek, 

 S-KovTiag, in iElian, Anim. Xat. B. vi. c. 18 ; it is mentioned by Galen, 

 heriaca, c. 8. — B. 



^- In B. ix. 1. 701, Lucan says : " Here the gore (of the Gorgon Me- 

 usa) w^hich first from the sand lifted a head, raised the drowsy asp with 

 s puffed-out neck." The whole of this passage in Lucan is well worth the 

 -teution of those desirous to know something of the serpent-lore of tlie 

 icients. 



s'^ Cuvier says, that Geofi'roi St. Hilaire has identified this animal with 

 le Coluber haje of Linna3us, whicli has, from the earliest ages, been known 

 1 a native of £gypt, and where it still exists. Its two most remarkable 

 laracteristics are those here referred to ; the puffing out of the neck when 



