Chap. 14.] SERPENTS OF REMARKABLE SIZE. 261 



CHAP. 13. (13.) DRAGONS. 



^Ethiopia produces dragons, not so large as those of India, but 

 still, twenty cubits in length. 76 The only thing that surprises 

 me is, how Juba came to believe that they have crests. 77 The 

 Ethiopians are known as the Asachaei, among whom they 

 most abound ; and we are told, that on those coasts four or 

 five of them are found twisted and interlaced together like so 

 many osiers in a hurdle, and thus setting sail, with their 

 heads erect, they are borne along upon the waves, to find bet- 

 ter sources of nourishment in Arabia. 



CHAP. 14. (14.) SERPENTS OF REMARKABLE SIZE. 



Megasthenes informs us, that in India, serpents grow to 

 such an immense size, as to swallow stags and bulls ; 78 while 

 Metrodorus says, that about the river Ehyndacus, 79 in Pontus, 

 they seize and swallow the birds that are flying above them, 

 however high and however rapid their flight. 80 It is a well- 

 known fact, that during the Punic war, at the river Bagrada, a 



" 6 Cuvier states, that in India and America there are serpents of the 

 genus boa, or python, thirty feet or more in length. He observes, that 

 there are various species of aquatic reptiles in the seas of India, but that 

 they never swim twisted together, or with their heads elevated. JElian 

 gives an account of the great size of the dragons in ^Ethiopia. B. 



77 Cuvier remarks, that there are no serpents with crests on the head, 

 and that Juba must have been thinking probably of some animal of the 

 genus lacertus, when he made this statement. We may here remark, that 

 the " basiliscus," or "king of serpents," was said by the poets to have 

 a crown on its head, as denoting its kingly rank. See c. 33 of this Book. 



78 It is well known, that certain serpents have the jaws and fauces so 

 constructed, that they will allow of the passage of an animal more bulky 

 than themselves ; they first crush its bones, and form it into a kind of pulp, 

 and then pass it, without further change, into the stomach, where it is 

 slowly dissolved by the gastric juices. B. 



79 Supposed to have been in Mysia, or Bithynia, considerably to the west 

 of Pontus. B. 



80 This account is entirely without foundation. The same statement is 

 made by JElian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 21, who probably copied it from Me- 

 trodorus. There are stories of the power which serpents possess of fasci- 

 nating birds by the eye, but they are not improbably without foundation. 

 B. There is little doubt, however, that some serpents have the power, 

 by some means or other, of fascinating the birds which they make their 

 prey. 



