494 Reptiles. 



With burnish'd neck of verdant gold, erect 

 Amidst his circling spires that on the grass 

 Floated redundant ; pleasing was his shape 

 And lovely .... Ofthebow'd 

 His turret crest and sleek enamell'd neck, 

 Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon she trod." 



PARADISE LOST. 



The ancients paid great honours to Serpents, and some- 

 times called them good genii : they frequented sepul- 

 chres and burying-places, and were addressed like the 

 tutelary divinities of these places. We read, in the fifth 

 book of the u33neid, that when the Trojan hero sacrificed 

 to his father's ghost, a Serpent of this kind made his 

 appearance : 



and from the tomb began to glide 



His hugy bulk on seven high volumes roll'd ; 



Blue was his breadth of back, and streak'd with scaly gold. 



Thus riding on his curls he seemed to pass 



A rolling fire along, and singe the grass ; 



More various colours through his body run, 



Than Iris when her bow imbibes the sun. 



Between the rising altars and around, 



The sacred monster shot along the ground ; 



With harmless play among the bowls he pass'd, 



And with his lolling tongue assay'd the taste : 



Thus fed with holy food, the wondrous guest 



Within the hollow tomb retired to rest." DRYDEN. 



This animal was exalted to the honour of being an 

 emblem of prudence, and even of eternity ; and is often 

 represented as the latter in Egyptian hieroglyphics, 

 biting his tail, so as to form a circle. Serpents are very 

 numerous in Africa ; and Lucan, in his "Pharsalia," gives 

 us a very extraordinary account of the different species, 

 which he seems to have drawn partly from ancient 

 Greek authors, partly from actual traditions. He says : 



" Why plagues like these infect the Libyan air ; 

 Why deaths unknown in various shapes appear ; 

 Why, fruitful to destroy, the cursed land 

 Is temper'd thus by Nature's secret hand ; 

 Dark and obscure the hidden cause remains, 

 And still deludes the vain inquirer's pains." 



BOWE'S " LUCAN.'' 



